Same Old Song

I find myself with a dilemma: I have the time to blog but I really don’t have anything to blog about. It’s not quite the end of the month, so I can’t do a look back and look forward blog. I don’t have anything quirky going n and I haven’t seen a new movie in ages. I said I wouldn’t blog about the Steelers (and really, I don’t have anything new to say about them anyway other than I just got THE COOLEST Steelers shirt in the mail earlier this week). Obviously, I could always blog about something politic-y, but I was really hoping I could do something a little more up beat and less rantesqe.

There’s certainly plenty of material to rant about. Just today, in fact, the trail blazing state of South Dakota passed a law which would heavily fine any doctor performing any abortion except in cases when the fetus dies while the doctor is in the process of saving the mother’s life. The only reason for this law is to test the mettle of the new Village Idiot appointees to the Supreme Court to see just how far back they are willing to sling Civil Liberties in this country.

Obviously, I could go on for paragraph after paragraph on that one. Or how about the Village Idiot’s complete and total lack of effort in securing the ports of our country. The White House approved the take over of a company managing several major ports in the US by a state-run Arab country. And when I say White House, I literally mean White House. An entity other than Bush himself because he didn’t know anything about it until after the approval had been passed through. I can’t say I blame that entity however: I wouldn’t want that moron’s opinion on anything, either.

There are far greater implications with that one, but again, I think everyone’s had enough of those rants. Like the one I could do about the fact that our Vice President thinks that he’s not only above the law but above the news. If some rapper had shot a dude in the face on a hunting trip, does anyone think for one second that the cops wouldn’t be all over that one? Don’t even get me started on the fact that these geriatric assholes are hunting quail bred with little to no wings and stupid. Who even know that these “quailtards” even existed!?!?

But alas, that story is long gone and far to rand inducing to go off on. So I guess I don’t really have anything to blog about for today. Sorry.

A Rude Awakening

Late last week, I awoke from a football-induced coma. I was pretty much dead to the world outside of the Steelers since Christmas. And let me tell you something, waking up was no picnic.

It turns out that we still have a Village Idiot President, his administration continues to flaunt it’s powers and now they are in the process of breaking more laws while maintaining an air of superiority and invincibility. I hadn’t watched a Daily show for almost 3 weeks. They were all there on Tivo, waiting for me. And boy, did they pound me over the head with the harsh realities.

I learned a very interesting lesson as a result of my stint in the coma: Joe Blow American doesn’t give a shit about what our administration is doing. They may hear about it in passing, but they do not give it the amount of consideration that is truly required to understand the implications. Joe Blow does not stop to think what might happen in the future if today, the Village Idiot and his droogs are listening in on phone calls from US Citizens to suspected terrorists. If this is the plan that we DO hear about, what else are they doing?

And what about the stories of college students being harassed by the Secret Service for checking out too many books on the watch list? Does Joe Blow American even hear about these stories? These aren’t the publicized stories because they’re far too complex for a sound bite. How many of these sort of stories did I not hear about in the past month and a half while I was on news sabbatical?

Bush’s Administration is built on a foundation of secrecy, lies, misinformation, spin, blind loyalty and lawlessness. These are not qualities that the Administration is trying to weed out. They are not qualities that the Village Idiot condemns. These are qualities that are promoted, if not needed, by this administration. If not adhered to stringently, a member of the Administration would quickly find himself on the outside looking in. Is Joe Blow aware of the fact that the Village Idiot will fire someone for raising even the slightest concern about any of his various illegal activities? Is he aware that multiple people lost there jobs for simply suggesting that Iraq would be more costly and time consuming that advertised by the Village Idiot and his droogs?

George W. Bush’s only positive accomplishment during his Presidency was boosting the sale of huge signs that say Mission Accomplished. And he did that almost 3 years ago. Since then, he has murdered over 2000 American servicemen without yet supplying a single justifiable cause. He has shit all over the Bill of Rights in so many ways it’s scary: through his judge nominees, through the Patriot Act, through the holding of enemy combatants, through the removal of public discourse regarding his policies, through threats to the press and through who knows how many other “essential weapons in the war on terror” that are nothing more than illegal tapping of US Citizens’ phones.

Seriously, come up with a single positive accomplishment since 9/11/01. Terrorist attacks have increased exponentially. The economy is growing at a rate slower than anyone could have thought possible. Our environment is being eroded. It’s sickening.

The worst part is, and this is the part that I realized only after coming out of the coma, there is absolutely nothing that will be done about it. If Bush walked into the New York Times, arrested the editor and personally assigned one of his droogs on the job, I think he could get away with it. There would be a little bit of a stink, but there would be absolutely, positively no consequences for his actions. This is my point: HE CAN DO ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING HE WANTS AND GET AWAY WITH IT. People might not like it. People might complain about it. But he can do ANYTHING and no one will hold him to task. I think one of the most important thing for people to do is to take responsibility for their actions. Not a single person in this administration ever needs to worry about this: they have a carte blanch.

The infuriating part is that there are provisions set up in our Constitution to prevent a Rouge Terrorist Leader (essentially, what Bush is) from taking over our country without the will of the people. Joe Blow is the people. And he doesn’t care.

Turn Out the Lights

As the last team standing, the Steelers get to have the last say in everything for the next year. This is going to be the last thing I have to say about this season and football in general until, at the earliest, the draft. I know most of you aren’t going to miss it in the slightest. But whatever. The blog is meant for me to spout my thoughts, and during football season, football is very much at the front of my mind.

Firstly, I’m beginning to think that things like “your team has won the Super Bowl” aren’t the sort of things that “just hit you”. It’s not like jumping into a mountain lake and you come to an instant realization that you’re freezing. It’s more like just sitting in the warm sun on an autumn day with a jacket on. Slowly, the sun’s enough to heat you to the point where you say, “Hey, I’m kinda hot”. Over the past couple of day, it’s not an analogy to say that a nice warmness has crept up on me. It’s a very happy feeling. And I think this is the way it’s going to be for the next year.

Secondly, normally, after the season, I tend to back away from sports for a month or so and don’t come back until College Basketball reaches its post season. The reason isn’t that I don’t want to follow the college basketball regular season. It’s that I’ve been so mad about the end of the Steelers’ season that I don’t want to be reminded that it’s over. I took Monday off specifically to watch as much post-game shows and read as many on-line articles about the victorious Steelers as I could. After one day, I am 100% positive that, like seasons past, I will once again be stepping away for the next month. The media’s ranting about poor officiating during the Super Bowl didn’t ruin the victory for me by any means. But it did manage to make me a little mad that they’d try. So, like year’s past, I’m going to take a step back, avoid SportsCenter (except when I need a Pitt score), and put my focus elsewhere. Only this time, I’m stepping into the warm sun.

A final look back at the season wouldn’t be complete without acknowledging that the last 9 weeks (8 games and one bye week) have been one of the most exciting, fun, dramatic, heart stopping, and jumping-up-and-down-inducing 2 month periods I’ve ever had. It has been an absolute thrill. I don’t think another Steelers’ Super Bowl will be remotely as crazy of a trip. I just can’t imagine have 8 MUST WIN games in a row. It’s such a rare occurrence. What they did HAS NEVER happened before. So what I went through as a fan, no one else has ever gone through. For that reason alone, I can’t imagine there being a more memorable Steelers season. And to be honest, I’m not sure I’d want to go through that again. Once is enough. I think I’d like winning one where we’re the favorite. I want to know how New England felt last year. I think that would be every bit as gratifying yet a completely different experience. But I’m not sure that I will ever forget this season. In my little world, it really was and will likely be the best ever.

Lastly, I want to thank Jenn for putting up with my fanaticism. I know she doesn’t get it. I don’t get a lot of the things she does, so I suppose it’s even. But one thing I know for sure: other than trying to be a little calmer during the games, I know she’d never ask me to change, and that says quite a lot about her.

Early predictions for next year! Colts are going to drop to a 10-6 team after losing Edge and the Defense taking a giant step back, but still win the AFC South. New England is going to have to battle Miami for the East (they’ll both make the playoffs). Denver is going to be a beast in the regular season (if they sign T. O.) and the West is again going to beat each other up so badly that only the Division winning will make the playoffs. Pittsburgh will not be as good next year as they were this year in the post season. But everyone else is taking a step back, so they won’t have to play perfect to get to the Super Bowl again. Cincy is going to be much worse, but because they don’t play in the West, will squeak into the post season. Pittsburgh and Denver will have the byes. Denver still has Jake Plummer at QB, so they aren’t going very far. In the NFC, which will be improved next year, I like Washington a lot, Minnesota, Carolina, and Seattle as division winners and Dallas and Atlanta to be Wild Cards (San Fran will finish 8-8 and win the West in 2 years). It will be a Pittsburgh-Washington Super Bowl and the Steelers will repeat. This time, Big Ben proves the difference in the Super Bowl. He’s going to feel like he has a lot to prove next season. You think the rest of the league is looking forward to that!?!?!

HOLY SHIT! THE STEELERS WON THE SUPER BOWL!?!?!?

Numb

The Steelers won the Super Bowl. I'm numb. I'm so happy, but probalby more relieved right noiw, just a couple hours after the game finished. WE're watching Ocean's 11, to sort of help wind us down (more me, than anyone I'm sure). But I'm fairly certain that I'll be sleeping just fine on my own tonight, with or without a wind-down.

I figured people might like an immediate reaction to the Steelers becoming World Champs, but really, I'm not sure it's sunk in yet. I'm taking the day off tomorrow to watch endless TV re-cap and supurlatives and to read the same on-line. Other than the euphoria immediately after the game, I'm not sure I'm going to fell anything beyond punch-drunk happy. I thought, before the game, that I would float on a cloud of glee for a while, but now I'm not so sure that's a realistic reaction. I've sunk in a lot to rooting for this team. However, while the experience by no means underwhealming, I think the slight twinge of relief may circumvent any "floating" side effects of teh ahppiness.

But I know one thing: the Steelers are World Champs. And I get to say that for 12 more months. And nothing can take taht away!