For scattered thoughts and miscellany go to The Molloy-verse

For my thoughts, reviews, and complaints on traveling go to Delayed Again

To check out the progress (or lack thereof) in my garden, check out GreenGardn

To see what my wife is cooking, go to What Shannon’s Cooking

And to read my thoughts on sports (and specifically the New York Yankees) check out Yankees Bench

To be honest, I’m trying to think about what to do with this blog and whether I need a relaunch or just keep ranting from time to time.

Speaking with my cousin, I realized it’s not one day, it’s now National Asshole Year.  What does this mean? It means I am going to enjoy it until the World Series winner is crowned next year. I am going to remind every Red Sox fan I see that the natural order to the universe has returned. I am going to be a Yankees fan when there is no baseball being played. I am going to boast about my team and make up for nine years of abuse and questions like, “how can you like THAT team,” and “don’t you think the Yankees should let someone else win,” and “the Yankees just buy talent, anyone could do that.”

So today I say to all non-Yankees baseball fans out there… EAT IT: the New York Yankees are WORLD CHAMPIONS.

I thought we had an unwritten understanding with retailers that they wouldn’t start this nonsense until after Thanksgiving.  When did the day after Halloween become the start of the Christmas season?? I’m making a vow to not shop for Christmas before Thanksgiving and to shun retailers that try to shove it down my throat before then.

If we don’t stop this now, they’ll be trying to advertising Christmas the Tuesday after Labor Day in ten years.

Now, I’ve never been a Tim McCarver hater and I’ve always thought Joe Buck was, at worst, bland. They’re doing a barely adequate job, though I wish they had someone like Joe Morgan in the booth to talk through the baseball situations. I’m not 100% sure McCarver knows what is going on with his horrible dye job.

That aside, are you telling me that Fox can’t do a better job with its pre-game? How many horrific promos for Avatar or Family Guy spin offs (that show should have stayed canceled) can they shove in? How on Earth does MLB allow Fox to massacre the pre-game? What’s wrong you ask?  Well:

• Chris Rose is an empty suit with no clue how to control the idiots he’s been saddled with.
• Karros, Grace, and Ozzie are a holocaust unto themselves. These are supposed to be men who know baseball and instead spend the entire time yucking it up. A friend suggests I watch the MLB channel pre-game, I think I will.
• They’ve married promos with old game footage and made nonsense. Where are the past highlights? Where are the stats? Where is the talk of baseball? I guess Fox figures a grand introduction theme is enough to pay its respects to the World Series, but I even saw those damn dancing robots from the NFL coverage.

Even the NY Times (who is providing the BEST coverage I have seen) can’t stand the Fox coverage.  In their Live Analysis from Game Four, they wrote:

Update | 8:34 p.m. The rain on Saturday night killed any chance of the ceremonial introduction of the players at Citizens Bank Park. The ritual was carried out tonight, but Fox ignored it. Oh, you sort of saw it occurring in the background of the bland pregame show, with Chris Rose, Mark Grace, Ozzie Guillen and Eric Karros. Rather than focus on the introductions, viewers heard Karros and Grace utter banalties and Rose tell Guillen, the moonlighting White Sox manager, that the exuberant Phillies fans “are cheering for you” because he picked Philadelphia to win. Really? I know what I wanted to watch — and this wasn’t it. I like to see each player introduced. I think most fans do, too. I wasn’t thrilled to watch the “keys to the game” from Cleveland, the animated star of Fox’s latest cartoon series or to see that the opening tease to the pregame show consisted of scenes from the series edited with scenes from the new film “Avatar,” a film from Twentieth Century-Fox.–R.S.

I wish some other network would take the World Series away from Fox AND demand that the games end earlier. It seems to me that our national past time should offer games that a 10 year old be allowed to stay up for. I say, let’s schedule the games so they end by 10:30.

WORST SPORTS COVERAGE EVER (well since the TBS baseball coverage).

While there are still four more games to win, the New York Yankees are World Series bound. While the Phillies are a great team and I’m expecting a tough series, I’d like to say to all of those anti-Yankees people out there:  SUCK IT. I LOVE that the Yankees have the highest payroll, the best players, and have just won their 40th AL pennant. I LOVE IT. I don’t ever want another team to win. EVER.

You see, that’s the difference between the Yankees and the rest of the AL. They get that the only thing worth anything is winning the world series. That’s it. I put up with losing in hockey and basketball so I’m entitled to a winning baseball team.

And guess what? If he continues to hit I’ll fall in love with A-Rod. Yes, the man I hated and thought was a big choker has been pretty damn good lately. If he keeps this up, I’ll sing his praises.  Why? Because Yankees fans love winners above all else.

Today I am very very very very happy.

Being a top-notch movie director, having a rough life, and the passage of time do not erase the idea that misdeeds be punished by the rule of law. For French government officials and dimwits like Debra Winger to go on television and claim that Roman Polanski be freed because it’s been 30 years is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.

By that logic we should give up on Victor Gerena (I remember this from when I was a kid), Eric Rudolph, and anyone else who committed serious crimes years ago. Regardless of the circumstances or what happened to his family, the man drugged and raped a child. That deserves some sort of punishment. Even if they throw him in jail for 30 days, make him pay a fine, and tell him he can never ever ever ever return to the United States.

Why? Because justice is blind. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, it’s supposed to treat all equally. We have to show the world and other criminals that running and hiding out will not make your crimes go away. How on Earth is that anything but common sense?

This morning I saw that Jimmy Carter came out and called racism on a lot of these nuts.  Good for him. It’s about time someone questioned what the hell is going on.

For 8 years, George Bush screwed up everything he touched. He got us into a war in Iraq we had no business being in (I never thought there were WMDs), he let business do whatever it wanted and wreck the economy, he pushed social “values” that were one-sided and made matters worse.  All along the way I was told “support the President,” “respect the President and his office.” It became unpatriotic to disagree with the man.  What do we have to show for it?

• High deficits
• Corporations who think they can screw the consumer (especially insurance companies)
• The highest unemployment in years
• Middle Class Americans getting screwed
• Higher energy prices

Now the tea-baggers (who don’t even know what this means) are out there creating a fuss.  Where is all the civility and respect they demanded while Bush was in office?

It’s time for people to stop believing everything they read or see on TV. Use some judgement and read different news sources that provide multiple points of view. George Bush created a world of problems and Obama is actually trying to fix them.  I don’t agree with everything he does, but I do agree that the insurance companies need to be reigned in.  I do agree that the private sector needs some regulation.  I do agree that common Americans need protection.  He’s doing all of this.

Have an open mind and debate policy.  Let’s stop with the bullshit and lies and name calling.  We’re not a nation of four year olds.