Karl Rove as the #1 pundit?  Please.  Chris Matthews as #2!!!?????  Does anyone even watch or pay attention to him?  All I can say is Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

The comments section there at the Telegraph is pretty amusing, since it has broken out into an American fistfight on a British site.  Oh, the times we live in!  I have a list of my own, but I don’t feel like writing it now.

I have never been able to figure out why people care so much about the NFL Draft.  If there is any draft people should care about, it’s the military one that will probably be headed in our direction within the next 5-7 years.  It is utterly mind-boggling that people will sit and watch the talking heads on ESPN analyze who could be the next pick.  Get a life!  All I want to do when I watch ESPN is watch some highlights of sporting events from last night, not Mel Kiper’s hair discuss the ‘draft board’ of the San Francisco 49ers.  All this for a bunch of players who may not even make the roster in August. 

ESPN is a big part of the problem.  The NFL wanted to make their sport ‘year-round’ (which is a lie), and ESPN was willing to shove their collective noses up the NFL’s rear end and oblige.  Actually, you know what, that’s not a strong enough image.  ESPN was willing to take it up the rear from the NFL in order to ‘stay relevant’. 

Did I mention I hate ESPN?  Or the NFL?

One of the debates that is beginning to heat up even more is whether or not we have reached ‘peak status’.  I have not been convinced one way or another whether oil is finite or regenerational.  I hope it’s the latter, but I am not holding my breath.  So what we need is a new plan – one that takes common sense into effect.  Unfortunately, our energy policy is not dictated by it at all.  It is beholden to a bewildering diversity of special interests – environmentalist types, oil companies, and the automobile industry.  I have a feeling that this will not please either the environmentalist types or the oil guzzling types, but here we go.

1) Non-intrusive oil drilling – in Alaska and off the coasts (Gulf and Pacific).  Yes, that includes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).  Despite the shrill screams of people blaming oil companies, it is largely an issue of supply and demand – supply goes up with stable demand, the price drops.  Only a small part of ANWR needs to be drilled, and if we are to be ‘energy dependent’, certain things need to be taken into our own hands.

2) Build new refineries – related to #1, we always get screwed if a refinery has an accident, because of the limits on them.  There hasn’t been a new one in over 30 years and the age of the current ones begin slowing their efficiency.  Less efficiency means more cost to them and therefore more cost to us.

3) Raise fuel efficiency standards – now that I have demonstrated that we need to raise supply, we have to curb demand.  Raising fuel standards in automobiles is the way to go, but there needs to be a nudge to the automakers.  Tax breaks and other incentives might provide motivation, or to have a contest between the automakers to see who can be the first to develop a marketable 60 MPG car gets 75% of their taxes slashed for three years.  It is an embarrasment to see auto commercials trumpeting their ‘good’ fuel standards that get 23 MPG city and 26 MGP highway.  If I can get at least 33-35 MPG on my crappy little Saturn, they can certainly do that.  So a minimum standard of, say, 40 MPG for a car and 35 MPG for trucks and vans.  That is just for starters – as it would improve over the 27/20 standard we have now.

4) Nuclear Power Plants – I don’t give the French a whole lot of credit for anything, but they deserve it for being able to power most of the country on nuclear power, and we ought to take a lesson from them.  I look squarely at the environmentalist movement as the roadblock to this.  Get out of the way!!  You are holding up the progress as much as the energy companies are.  Instead of continuously looking at Chernobyl and the Bomb, how ’bout the positive side?  It doesn’t pollute from its towers and while we do have to figure out an effective way to dispose of the nuclear waste, it will go a long way to removing our electrical grid off the coal and oil.

5) Building codes – I am against the compact flourescent lightbulb (CFL), as it is a health risk due to the dearth of disposal.  Likewise, if it breaks, you are exposed to mercury, which could kill you if you are closely exposed.  However, the LED light is coming and it could also be made mandatory to fit all public buildings with tankless water heaters.  This would eliminate the oil/natural gas component, and likewise give a tax break to citizens who go the tankless way. 

6) (A Questionable Point) Alternative Energy – Solar and wind power are favs of the green movement, but unfortunately they are still way too unpredictable to rely on them.  Solar panels have to face a certain way and the wind has to be blowing in order for mills to work.  Ethanol needs to be abandoned immediately as it actually causes more smog than regularly treated gas and is now even causing a food shortage due to the large swaths of corn going for ethanol production rather than eating.  Biodiesel looks sort of promising, but it has the same pitfall as ethanol – the reliance upon crops as a way of production.

Col. Sherman Potter: You’re not going anywhere!

Maj. Charles Winchester: Sir, my father knows Harry Truman.  He doesn’t like him but he knows him!

Potter: Fine, you have dad call Harry, and have Harry call me, and then we’ll work something out.  In the mean time, vamoose!

Winchester: I am…vamoosing.  But know this: you can cut me off from the civilized world!  You can incarcerate me with two moronic cellmates!  You can torture me with your thrice daily swill but you cannot break the spirit of a Winchester!  My voice shall be heard from this wilderness and I shall be delivered from this fetid and festering sewer!

I am participating in a Knights of Columbus bowling tournament in Norfolk, VA.  I should have pictures up by the end of the weekend.  The place the wife and I are staying is nice, complete with a picturesque view of the waterfront where the James River meets with the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. 

I bowled six games Saturday afternoon – three in doubles competition (with my father) and three in singles competition.  Overall, between the six games, I had a combined score of 1122, which corresponds to a 187 average.  That doesn’t tell the whole story.  The lanes in Norfolk are made of pure wood, rather than the synthetic lane surface we are used to in Maryland (and most bowling alleys).  It took most of us into the third game to adjust and I was no exception. 

Take away the first two games, and the composite score for the remaining four games is 804, a 201 average.  This makes a huge difference.  Thus, you can see how badly I had bowled in the first two games – 150 and 167.  Now that I know how the lanes work, tomorrow’s team competition should be good from the get-go.  Updates and pictures tomorrow!

Ken Griffey, Jr. says he knows the answer

Black kids got turned off by the media’s treatment of Barry Bonds.

I am not sure that I buy this completely, although I am sure it is a fairly large factor.  The author of the piece, Jeff Passan, notes that the percentage of black American baseball players hovers at around 8%, which is about as low as it was in the mid-1980′s.  Griffey says that his own son would rather play football, basketball, golf, or even race dirtbikes than play baseball.  He would be an obvious exception to my theory – the lack of father figures in the black community.

Allow me to explain – baseball is a sport, more than any other, that is handed down from generation to generation.  It is probably the sport that requires the most teaching due to the complexities and the long, winding history of the game.  In previous generations, players both black and white had that connection with the older men of the family who would instruct them in the intricacies of the game.  Football and basketball don’t require a lot of instruction to pick it up.  Baseball does.

I know that I wouldn’t have anywhere near the breadth of knowledge that I do about baseball without the tutelage of my father, who taught me how to strategize and how to play positions properly, as well as explain things like the infield fly, the hit and run, why the runners take off on a full count, and why sometimes a home run is as big of a rally killer as a double play. 

In short, baseball is a sport that is cultivated from within; with the alarming numbers of fatherless households in the black community, and the growing number of the same within white families, it is not really a surprise that baseball is slipping when it comes to the youth of America these days.  With less close-related men to cultivate and plant the seeds of America’s Pastime within young men, the looser the hold it will have on future generations.  And that is a shame. 

The weather was absolutely fantastic – perfect day to hold a large open-aired Mass.

Watching the procession of priests and bishops is always an aesthetic pleaser – especially given their matching vestments.  The reaction to the entrance of the Pope was about as loud as I have ever heard any ovation. 

One of my former colleagues, who is now a seminarian, was one of the candle-bearers in the Papal procession.  Pretty cool.

The Homily was fantastic, although I had a hard time understanding some of what the Holy Father was saying – I don’t pick up the German accent as well as I do other accented English.  The full meaning didn’t come upon me until I read the sermon, which can be found here.

I’ll chime in with what a lot of others have said – I thought the music was sub-par, but not for the reasons that many others (which apparently included Raymond Arroyo and Fr. Neuhaus, from what I hear) have said.  My concern was with the lack of continuity within the music.  Too many distinct styles make for a sort of cacophony.  I don’t care for the Mass of Creation, but it is a servicable set of parts – it just didn’t fit with the particular version of the Gloria and Agnus Dei used, as well as the other hymn selections. 

Getting a close-up of the Papal cathedra, it looked real comfortable.  No wonder the Pope only administered the Eucharist for five minutes!

Most importantly, this was the first time Nationals Park was actually sold out!  *Rim shot*

Problem will be, of course, that the self-righteous of the world will pounce on it and accuse him of bad faith, if conversion is the path he chooses.  All one has to do is read the comments section of the article.  It is amazing how many people are modern-day Donatists.  One has to remember that as long as there are people in the Catholic Church, there will be sinners in the Catholic Church. 

Unfortunately, the holier-than-thou crowd will thumb their noses at this and begin the long and torturous process of ripping apart the man just because he doesn’t fit their numb-skulled version of what a ‘good Catholic’ is.