Warm up your brain for tomorrow's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me....take the Trib's weekly trivia quiz. I got a 90%...only missing the one about Spreewell...and I don't think that one should count anyways.... :+)

Midnight Madness!!!!
It's Heeeerrreeeee!!! For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about...get a clue...no seriously, tonight is the offical start to another college hoops season. As Dick Vitale says... "It's a Celebration...baby!"

It feels weird, but Jeff and I have decided not to attend the Midnight Madness festivites at Carver-Hawkeye Arena this year. Our decision to not attend is only in part because of the problems plaguing the Iowa program (take for instance the fact that in order to scrimmage against ourselves this evening we have to bring in two high school players.) Rather, it's due largely to the fact that we have friends in from out of town that we don't see very often and that the Midnight Madness that Iowa puts on is an ok way to spend an evening, but frankly it's a little boring. So we've elected not to go. Maybe we'll catch some of the coverage from Lubbuck or Comcast Arena on the tube instead.

I have blogged about this before, but the season opens as an unhappy one for my Hawks. We are down to 8 players right now and as Andy Katz put it...we'll be lucky to make the NIT this year. That's hard. The problems that our team has are not caused completely by Coach Steve Alford (as the general public is starting to say), he has made a few mistakes and hopefully has figured out how not to make them again(check out this article) ...but they are mainly caused by the fact that we've had the worst run of luck in this off season....guys have quit because they're homesick, they are academically ineligble, unhappy beacuse they cannot be guaranteed 30 minutes of floor time and misc. infractions of the law. Hopefully we can pull it together, put a decent squad on the floor and not publicly embarass ourselves by going 0-20 or something like that. I have faith in our team...I really do. Anything is possible (a.k.a. Hoosiers)

There are a few other teams to watch this season (I've done limited reserach right now, I will be amending this in the next few weeks).... The team that pops in my head first is North Carolina. Matt Doherty's career at UNC rides on the six freshmen that are supposed to bring UNC back to the NCAA tournment. I can't imagine the UNC faithful's will stand for another season like they had last year.

Elsewhere in the ACC, From what I see Maryland is going to be a strong team and a title contender again this year. They have a few key holes, but they have a talented backcourt that should provide some strength. From what I read on Vitale's notes this morning Duke sounds like they have some solid recruits again this year and as always will be a tough team.

I don't know too much about the Big 10 yet...but just wait my friends...I will be posting some thoughts on that very shortly.

For now, I'll leave my thoughts at this (rather than speculate on things I haven't really thought about) and I'll just sit here and revel in the fact that another college hoops season is here!!! GO HAWKS!

IT's FRIDAY!!!!!

From Friday Five.org...
1. If you could only choose 1 cd to ever listen to again, what would it be?
I think it would be the Indigo Girls Retrospective. This CD is the Indigo Girls greatest hits CD so it spans their entire career which has gone through a serious style change over the years. Since I enjoy their early music as well as their later more mature recordings this CD would suit me for whatever mood I was in.

2. If you could only choose 2 movies to watch ever again, what would they be?
One of them would be Can't Buy me Love...I know it's crazy. But...this movie has been one of my favorite movies since the first time I saw it in the 80's. I have loved it for all these years and I don't know why. It's sad, but I have actually worn out 2 VHS tapes of this kooky movie. So that would have to be one of them. The other one...it's hard...I think it would be Singin' In the Rain. A little singin' and dancin is good for the soul!

3. If you could only choose 3 books to read ever again, what would they be?
Wow...to choose only three books, out of the hundreds that we have and that I have read. This one's a tough one. I think my obvious first choice would be the Bible. If I'm going to only have three books for the rest of my life, I think that would be a good one to have. For the other two it's a really hard choice...Jeffrey Archer's Kane and Abel and Billie Lett's The Honk and Holler Opening Soon.

4. If you could only choose 4 things to eat or drink ever again, what would they be?
Well, the obvious first choice is Water...I really hate wasting one of my four choices on water, but without water I wouldn't be able to live so I suppose that I'll grant it a spot on my list. Cookies and Cream Ice Cream would be next on my list. Pasta would be the main substance in my diet and I would have to have an unending supply of Oktoberfest beers for my fourth choice. :+)

5. If you could only choose 5 people to ever be/talk/associate/whatever with ever again, who would they be?
This is a HORRIBLE question. How can I choose only 5 people to ever be with and talk to again? There are more than 5 people in my family...then I'd have to chose friends too? If it were one person that I had to choose that would be easy...Jeff. Choosing beyond that is impossible.

High Compensation
Jeff and I have had this discussion with quite a few of our friends recently, as well as with our financial planner...I was just thinking about it and wanted to raise the question here. How much money is too much money? At what point does it not matter if you make $100K or $1m? The subject of inflated CEO salaries and benefit packages (including severences) has been a hot topic in the media recently. And it should be. Is there any reason for a CEO to make 200x's the line worker's salary? Haven't salaries for the top tiers of companies sky rocketed out of control in the last 40 years?

What got me thinking about this today is this article that was run in the Chicago Tribune this morning. Apparently the Chicago City Council has decided that they need a salary increase? Why not...the aldermen only make $85,000 a year. Of course if the city council gets a raise so does the mayor. His current salary? $192,000 a year. I understand that his job is important. But is it really worth more than $192,000 a year?

Note to self:
When a frozen meal comes with directions that allow you to choose whether you want to microwave the meal or deep fry it. Chances are it's going to come out of the microwave soggy and disgusting. Soggy eggrolls are not a good thing.

How on earth did people make it through an entire day at work before the invention of the internet???

Negative Campaign's

Once upon a time, in the beautiful fields of Iowa, two fine men set their sights on the same seat in the US Congress. So, In American democratic tradition they launched a campaign against each other and plan to have their people elect one of them on November 5th. Unfortunately, their campaign's have become incredibly painful to watch...here's what I mean...

Tom Harkin (D-Incumbent) is running against Greg Ganske (R- currently in the House.) Both of these men have had very respectable political careers up to this point. I say up to this point because I have personally lost respect for both of them over the past few months as they have forced their constituents to watch a campaign that is so full of childish ads, back-stabbing debates and dumb pranks (spying on and taping "enemy" meetings) that it feels like we would have a clearer picture of the best candidate if at their next debate (if there is one) they were to drag a pool of JELL-O out and wrestle each other for the seat. At least then we'd know who was physically stronger.

As I have mentioned in my blog before, I work with a group of people who are not super intelligent or well read. I look at the people at my office as average Iowan's. They go home from work at night, watch television that doesn't make them think, and absorb the campaign commercials. Harkin and Ganske are smart because they understand that what I have just described is the majority of the people who are going to be voting and these people are probably easily influenced by negative ads. These people won't look for the real issues. They just hear buzz words in commercials and make a decision from the information provided to them after the buzz word. To that extent, I suppose that I can defend Harkin and Ganske's decision to run these ads. However, for the rest of us who are intelligent and have a real interest in the campaign issues, this is getting hard to watch.

For instance. Harkin, is running an ad claiming that Ganske voted to reduce the Medicare reimbursement for the state of Iowa in HR 4775 (in small print of course). This is true. Ganske did vote in favor of HR 4775. But...if you actually take the time to look up the 141 pages of HR 4775 you will see that that title of HR 4775 is: Making Supplemental Appropriations for further Recovery From and Response to Terrorist Attacks on the United States. What Ganske voted for was to give further monies to New York and Pennsylvania to fund the salaries of FBI, Department of Health and Human Services and 141 pages of other needs. He did NOT vote to just take from Iowa to give to these other states for the hell of it. But...that's the spin that's being played out night after night on primetime TV commercials. People in general are stupid. They don't understand what it means to say that their Medicare money is being given to another state. They presume that it's bad because that's how it's spun. I guarn-damn-tee you that if Ganske had voted against this resolution he'd be accused of hindering the financing of homeland security and the recovery efforts.

I am not saying that I support Ganske or that I support Harkin. I think I'm leaning towards Ganske, but frankly like, I told Jeff last night, I would like to vote tomorrow for this election because by the time election day rolls around in 3.5 weeks I might be too disgusted with both candidates to vote for either of them.

15 or Free!!!

I found a link to this Matt Beauchamp's Secretary of State Campaign web site on another Blog and after clicking on it and reading his platform I must say that I am 100% endorsing Matt Beauchamp!!! Anyone vaguely familiar with politics in the state of Illinois will know that the Secretary of State office has been filled with scandal and pet projects that waste tax payers money for years. So Matt Beauchamp comes on the scene and says first "How can I screw up worse then these other guys..." and his platform is that he will guarantee you a drivers license renewal in 15 minutes or it's free!!!! Having had the pleasure of getting two drivers license’s in the state of Illinois I can tell you that this is completely revolutionary to the Illinois SS office. Getting a drivers license in Illinois is as lengthy and painful a process as having all your teeth yanked out one at a time. It's horrible! If I lived in Illinois right now I'd vote for Beauchamp and if you live in Illinois you should too!!!

When Telemarketing goes too far...
Being that I am home sick. I have had the joy of being engaged in intellectual conversation with 2-3 telemarketers every hour since 10:00am. I normally don't answer these calls, but a few minutes ago, the phone rang and out of habit I picked it up. I had no idea what I was about to hear on the other end of the phone...and you would never guess what it was if you tried...

It was a RECORDED MESSAGE from our fearless leader PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH...yep the same George W. Bush who is the most powerful man in the free world! Are you kidding me? The President of the United States of America has nothing better to do with his time than to record a message that is distributed by random dialing?

His message was about how every American should fill out their absentee ballot if they cannot make it to the polls in November. The message didn't say who was sponsoring the advertising, but I can presume it was either the Republican National committee or the Iowa Republican Committee.

While I believe that this is a very important message, and every American should vote, I don't know that stooping to a poor quality recording from the President is the best way to go. Telemarketers are the absolute bottom of the food chain to most Americans. Why should the President shove himself to the bottom of the food chain? Send a mailing with your picture on it Dubya. Make a TV commercial (so that networks can air it while they are not airing your address to the nation,) make a radio commercial. But don't let some political committee convince you to record and distribute your voice via telemarketing phone calls. There should be a limit to the commercialization of the American Presidency.

What is terrorism?
Since the attacks of September 11th one of the most hyped buzz words in America is terrorism. I don't think there is anyone reading this that would disagree that the September 11th attacks were terrorism. Many would say that the Anthrax attacks were a form of terrorism. The American Heritage Dictionary defines terrorism as: The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.

The reason I pose this question is that I have heard the sniper shootings in the DC area described as a terrorist attack. Some sources have qualified their description of them being domestic terrorism. But are they really terrorism? According to the definition above terrorism's intent is intimidating or coercing societies or governments for ideological or political reasons. Is that what is going on here or is the media just capitalizing on American's fear of terrorism and linking this heinous crime spree to the buzz word to get viewers/listeners attention? To me the sniper spree in Maryland meets a few of the requirements for classification as terrorism, but it doesn't meet all of them. It is an unlawful use of violence by a person (or an organized group) against people. However, since we don't know who is committing this crime spree we don't know the motive of the crime and therefore cannot know if the crime has the intention of intimidating or coercing society or the government. When the suicide bombings occur in Israel and Palestine an organized group claims responsibility for the terrorist act within hours. They don't claim responsibility for the crime because they want to be held legally responsible. They do so because they want everyone to know that the crime was committed with the intention of intimidating people and bringing awareness of the groups political views, thus qualifying as a terrorist attack. The sniper in DC hasn't claimed to be with any organized dissonant group. They haven't justified these crimes as being committed as a demonstration against any government or group. They are just shooting random people. While this is a cold blooded crime and do not take anything away from the horror that it is, I do not think that we know enough yet to declare these as a terrorist attack and I feel that the media is capitalizing on Americas fear.

Home Sick...
So it happened...I did get sick...in fact I feel absolutely awful. My head hurts, my body is aching and even though I slept for 14 hours I still feel like I've run 100 miles without a break. I hate being sick. I am not good at doing nothing and allowing myself to heal. In fact, I was even dressed for work this morning before I realized that I was kidding myself if I thought I could make it through even an hour at the office. So I put my PJ's back on, called work and slept for 4 more hours.

However, around 12:00pm the phone rang and it was the woman that I do consulting work for in Chicago. I heard her talking to my machine and whether I wanted to or not, I just couldn't sleep. I felt this obligation get up and call her back. I did, after coughing and sniffling my way through an hour long meeting I'm sitting here working for her. I guess the up side is that it pays more than my "day" job...and I'm being paid sick time at work right now...so I'm actually making 2.5 times the amount of money right now that I would be if I had dragged my butt to work...and I'm sitting here in my robe and slippers not disgusting anyone by blowing my nose ever 30 seconds.

Getting Sick
I think my weekend of no sleep has invited a cold into my head. As the day goes on I feel worse and worse. This sucks!

What a GREAT Weekend!!!
My blogging suffered during the final part of last week because I was so busy with month-end duties at work and even busier at home getting ready for the Homecoming festivites...but it was worth it! Absolutely nothing beats a weekend spent with good friends and a FANTASTIC (gut wrenching) Iowa Win!

Jeff and I hosted our annual chili and soup post-game party after the Iowa Homecoming victory and it was wonderful. I love to throw parties...for any reason...for anybody...but when I can throw one for all the people that I love and don't ever see it's even better! The party was a huge success! Jeff will tell you that we had more than enough food...but I view it differently...the chili and chicken noodle soup (made by Jeff) were such a hit that we ran out! I couldn't believe it...for the first time ever I ran out of something! The Beef Barley soup that I made was decent on Saturday, but it needed to cook a little longer and it was great on Sunday...that's ok though I think everyone enjoyed themselves just the same as we celebrated another last minute victory by the Hawks.

Jeff's brother and his wife came to town from Minneapolis with a group of friends. They all stayed at our house....11 people and 2 bathrooms...it was a little interesting getting dressed in the morning but outside of that it was great to have them with us...we just don't see them enough. One of the friends, Erik, who is just about a brother to Jeff had never been to a Big 10 football game before...he was definitely treated to a good first impression. I think he caught the bug for football big-ten style and hopefully we'll get him back to more games in the future.

During the course of the evening we had a few phone calls from friends far away who couldn't make the party. Our friend Jim couldn't make the party since he lives in DC, but he called Saturday night and I got to talk to him for a little bit. He's such a great guy and we all really miss him and his wife Stacy. When I talked to him he told me that the random shootings in Maryland last week (and today) have all been within 5 miles of their apartment. It terrified me. I can't imagine the fear that has to be in the minds of everyone around Maryland right now. I pray that the investigators catch a hot lead and find this nutbag before they kill more people at random. It is absolutely horrible.