A few rants today.  First there is Senator Cruz from Texas.  I will give him credit for standing up there talking away for over 21 hours without eating or bath room breaks.  I cannot go 21 MINUTES without going to the bathroom.  So I must tip my hat to him.  I think all filibusters should be done this way, not by the minority party simply saying that they would filibuster so unless the majority can get 60 votes then the law does not pass.  I think anyone who wants to filibuster should go up there and talk until he or she can't do it anymore.  Having applauded Cruz for his effort, I must say it was a waste of time.  At the end he voted with everybody so the vote was 100 to 0.  If he was doing this as a symbolic gesture, shouldn't he voted the way he wanted the vote to go in the first place?

Bud Selig is retiring.  Well overdue.  He has not been an effective commissioner, presiding over the steroid era.  A tie All Star game and the All Star game determining the home field advantage in the World Series occured under his watch.  I always wonder how is it that an owner of a team become the commissioner.  Shouldn't they have hired someone who was neutral?  Also the announcement came today but he is not retiring till Jan. of 2015, more than a year away.  Is he expecting a goodbye tour a la Mariano Rivera next year?

The U.S. wins the America's Cup.  Big deal.  It is an ultra rich man's sport.  Larry Ellison spends millions to win a cup nobody except a few billionaires care about.  This year's racing included cheating and a death.  It is like throwing money into water for no reason.  I know it is their money and they can do whatever they want to do with it.  But I will always think more highly of people like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates for donating their money than people like Ellison who just want to play with toys. 

Before the expected battle to shut down the government in D.C. this week, I will talk about something light:  the Emmy.  Well, the Emmy turn out not so light either with all the tributes to the dead and arguments who should have gotten individual tributes.  Even the bit about the great 60s tv involved the JFK killing.  Carrie Underwood sang the most melancholy of Beatles songs:  Yesterday!  It was a depressing show.

My favorite show Breaking Bad won as did my favorite comedy Modern Family.  Also the Colbert Report finally edged out the Daily Show which I think is long overdue.  But there were surprises as Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul did not win.  I have no idea who the guy that beat out Paul is.  I have not watched Boardwalk Empire.  But I have watched Newsroom and I am familiar with Jeff Daniels' work.  I don't think he was as good as Cranston in BB.  I found out the rule was each person was nominated for a particular episode.  So Daniels won on the basis of the premier where he made this long speech about why America is not greatest nation on earth.  That was a great performance but I am not sure one episode should decide who is the best over a years' worth of performances.  By the way, that speech is a good starting point for a blog, if anyone is interested.  The Newsroom, I think, is too left wing oriented.  This is not surprising given its creator Aaron Sorkin's history with the West Wing. 

I hear Dexter's finale was a disappointment.  I am not going to read anything else about it since I will get the DVD when it comes out on Netflix and see for myself.  But as I said before, it is difficult for a great show to end on a great note. Breaking Bad's finale is this coming Sunday.  I hope it can meet expectations.

I have finally regain consciousness after witnessing Michigan almost losing to Akron.  This goes to show that there is not that much difference between the so called power houses and the doormats.  It is also difficult to predict how 18-22 years olds play one week to the next.  For that matter from 1 hour to the next.  Witness UCLA sleep walk through almost half the game to only wake up and score the last 38 points of the game.  Of course, having lost a teammate the week before and playing at 9 am west coast time could have big effect on a team. 

The Pac 12 beat the Big Ten in 3 out 4 meetings yesterday.  Wisconsin should have won to even it up.  The ending was poorly officiated.  It was difficult to tell if the Wisconsin qb had taken a knee before putting the ball on the ground.  But the officials should have called something and let the replay official sort it out with the clock stopped.  Instead nobody called anything and the ASU player just lied on top of the ball so that the clock ran out. 

Now that Cal has a coach that run the up tempo offense, it is now accusing other teams of faking injuries to slow it down.  Last season it was Oregon accusing Cal (and others) of faking injuries.  I never thought that faking an injury is bad sportsmanship.  I mean, if my lungs are burning, I am injured!  Anyways it is difficult to tell who is faking.  One thing they can do is make the player go off the field for 3 plays instead of 1 like it is now.  Or they can have 3 injury timeouts per half, like the old 20 second timeouts in basketball.  If they used those up and a player is injured, they will have to use the regular timeouts.  This way, they will be less likely to fake an injury so that they can save their timeouts.

I thought Obama made a very good speech tonight.  He went over almost all points about why we should not bomb Syria.  I think that is about as well he could have done.  It did not change my mind.  I am still against it and I think the majority of the people are still against it.  He may have moved the needle his way a bit but not enough.  I think he should try to use the diplomatic opening that the Russians provided and try to save face.  It will also save us a lot of money and grief.

As I have said before, a lot of countries have more stake in stopping the war in Syria than us.  The Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan do not like instability in the middle east.  Turkey has its hand full with refugees pouring in over its border with Syria.  Israel cannot be happy with Syria having and using chemical weapons nearby.  Add to this list is Russia.  They don't want to world turn from apathy to against Assad.  They realize if Assad loses and the rebels take over, they are going to be against the Russians.  It is to their security concern that the chemical weapons are in check.  So they will try to make this work.  It is a good opportunity for Russia and the U.S. to cooperate now and get over the Snowden incident.

I had been on vacation and thus did not write anything recently.  I also have not been following the news much.  Just found out that Obama was getting ready to bomb Syria but then decided to let Congress debate and vote on it.  I also heard that Newt Gingrich is against bombing.  Well, what do you know?  I agree with Gingrich and disagree with Obama.  Must be something in the water in Michigan!

Obama painted himself into the corner by saying that using chemicals crosses a red line.  But it is a red line that I don't understand.  After 2 years and 100,000 dead and no intervention, now 1000 dead from a sarin attack crosses the line?  I mean, what is the difference between getting blown up by a bomb or killed by sarin?  You are dead either way.  And do we know where the chemicals are made and stored?  How do we know that our own bombs won't cause more collateral deaths than the sarin attacks themselves?  Isn't a death from a cruise missle same as a death from sarin?

The Arab League has called for intervention from the UN.  Knowing Russia and China will veto, it is basically asking the U.S. to intervene on its own.  Hey, how about doing it yourself?  It is a regional problem and they should deal with it themselves.  Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Jordan all are stronger than Syria militarily.  Why should we get involved in this civil war in which neither side will be friendly to us once it is over?

Incidentally if this red line is drawn by international law as Obama puts it, why did the U.S. looked the other way in the 1980s when Iraq used chemicals against Iran?  Was it because Iran was our enemy then and Iraq was our friend?  Also if after bombing Syria for a while and Assad stopped using chemicals and go back to killing his own people with conventional weapons only, do we declare victory while the next 100,000 are being killed?

So I am against Obama on this one.  But I do agree with him in seeking Congressional approval.  I do not agree with those who say that Obama appear weak by not pulling the trigger now.  It does not take courage to send the greatest military to fight.  McCain, who has been calling for intervention long before this, now asks Obama what is the strategy and exit plan.  Well, why doesn't McCain tell us what exactly what he would do?  In the Congressional debate, I want the hawks tell us how they envision we can be successful in this.  I doubt anyone can.  I think New Gingrich is the voice of reason here!