Friday hits

The official season of spring is here and outside the weather is trying to put aside the effects of Old Man Winter for good. It will be in the mid 50's the next few days and I can live with that. Let's get to some Friday "tidbits and musings".

Yesterday, the Boston Herald ran a poll that asked readers to grade the performance of Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick. At last check, with 7,445 votes, 74% gave Governor Patrick a well deserved F. Patrick is nothing more than a tone deaf, clueless politician looking to curry favor with other power brokers. He's an empty suit whose policies and maneuvers are taking the "working families" of the Commonwealth to the woodshed.

Holly Robichaud in today's Herald is right on the money. I need to get a 01.06.11 bumper sticker - this date signifies when Patrick's first term is up.

Other than the Oprah Winfrey show, there's no show on TV I can't tolerate more than the Today Show. I can't even stand it as background noise. To me, the Today Show are nails on a chalkboard. It is dumbed down news with a hard liberal slant, in which they recycle the same story day after day. The absurdly overpaid anchors of the show attempt to be hard hitting (particularly when a Republican is on), but they can't overcome their lightweight nature. Also, those losers who stands outside the Today show studio in 25 degree weather with a sign in their hands in the hopes of getting briefly on TV, clearly have too much time on their hands.

Speaking of too much time on their hands, how about the group of buffoons who were protesting bottled water by dumping it in the Boston Harbor the other day? If you don't like bottled water, don't drink it! I happen to like it. It's America, you have freedom of choice in such regards. How about if these people instead go to work and be a productive member of society or at least go look for a job.

I'm very excited about a potential Red Sox starting rotation of Beckett, Dice K, Lester, John Smoltz, and Brad Penny. A starting rotation of those five pitchers is second to none in major league baseball. This is a rotation that does have guys with a checkered injury past, but Beckett and Smoltz are famous for coming up big in the postseason. Lester and Dice K also have had success in the postseason, as well.

On paper, the Yankees rotation of Sabathia, Burnett, Pettitte, Chamberlain, and Wang is very formidable. However, Sabathia and Wang have had terrible postseason histories and Burnett and Pettitte are being held together with bailing wire and duct tape. Chamberlain's motion is so violent, there's concern among scouts that he can't handle a starter's load. Joba finished last season on the DL with a bad shoulder.

Considering the movies that are played on HBO, getting a monthly subscription isn't worth it. However, the shows on HBO are superb. I've watched several of the series - The Sopranos, Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the Wire, and all of them are far superior to the unoriginal, unfunny I Won't See TV on the major networks. As good as I thought The Sopranos was, it can't touch The Wire, which is phenomenal. I haven't seen a weak episode of The Wire, yet. The Sopranos, inexplicably, would get bogged down in Tony's anxiety issues, where scenes would get chewed up with him in his therapist's office. Yawn. The Wire ropes you right in and remains intensely interesting throughout the entire episode. Entourage is far better than The Sopranos as well.

I am stunned at the left wing columnists who buy right into the havoc the Democratic politicians in the House and Senate are inflicting upon our future with the absurd level of deficit spending, cheerfully proclaiming "Taxes will have to rise". Why are tax hikes something to celebrate? Just like at the state level, if the federal government had an unbiased auditors scrutinize the books and the payrolls, HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars in waste and fraud would be found.

Considering the deficits and debt we are running up, Bono of U2 can forget about the U.S. forgiving any Third World debt any time soon.

My buddy Jim just started his new blog. If you like baseball and are interested in reading some original analysis, you can find his blog here: http://tidbitsandmusings.blogspot.com/