In the movie, an alien vessel somehow breaks down and parks over Johannesburg, South Africa. After three months, the humans break into the ship and extract the aliens. Unsure what to do with them, the aliens are confined to an area called District 9 where they are put into shacks and not treated particularly well. Nigerian gang lords begin to start a drug trade in canned cat food and start trying to acquire alien weaponry (which they can’t use). After a period of time, it is decided that District 9 is too close to the city and that all of the aliens are to be evicted and moved to a new compound further from the city. This eviction process is where the problems begin.

The course of action followed in District 9, sadly, is what quite probably would happen if aliens contacted Earth. Human kind has a history of confining undesirables into small, controlled colonies to make society “safer.” This includes the Japanese internment in America during WWII, the prison colony of Australia, and terrorists in Guantanamo Bay. This would especially be true if the contacting aliens looked like those in District 9. Humans have a tendency to be Xenophobic and this feeds into our fears and prejudices.  Earth would probably react differently if the first species to contact us were Vulcans (or some species that closely resembling humans) as in Star Trek: First Contact.

If I were in charge, I am not sure how I would handle the situation. I think I would try to assimilate the aliens in to our society. In the film they made references to trying to get the aliens jobs, but it seemed that it wasn’t going well. In that case, admittedly I don’t know if I have a better answer. If we have learned anything from our history, it is that treating people with respect and care is the best way to engender friendship and peace. Hostility and anger leads to more hostility and anger, very rarely has a group been successfully contained against their will by brute force.

What I really wonder is if the United Nations or someone has a plan in place for when this happens. It seems like the kind of thing that a think tank would be good for planning. I also wonder if what happens in Star Trek: First Contact is what would happen. Not the details of how the aliens come, but more so the whole idea of the Earth coming together in harmony and peace once we realize that we are not alone in the universe. It may be the only thing that saves us as a people and creates a world where money is no longer used and our main goal as humans is just to better ourselves and Captain Picard says so many times.

I was reminded of the classic Simpson’s episode Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish where Mr. Burn’s is running for governor and Marge serves him a three eyed fish, Blinky, from the run off pond by his plant. He proceeds to spit the fish across the table and promptly loses the election.

So, while I appreciate that Doug Skuttles is willing to but money where his mouth is, I hope he is ready for some smart mother to make him eat his words.

PS — Please clean up the oil and reimburse my country. Thanks.

You will probably not stumble on to Antler Park unless you are really off the beaten bath. It is in a subdivision off of Rt. 120 or off of Hainesville Road. You can access it from the city bike paths along Washington Road, but there is not good way to get out along Rt. 120 or Hainesville.

So, if you are up for a little bit of a ride and would like a nice simple park, this is a fine place to visit. You can bring your young kids and older toddlers here and both will be amused. I would think much over five and you would want to find a slightly more challenging and exciting park.

Well that problem might be solved. While at the park several middle school type kids came by and walked into and out of the woods nearby. Different kids came out then went in so I figured it wasn’t a drug dealer or anything. I also knew that if there was a trail back there it would lead in a very useful direction for me to get home but I had never seen a trail coming out where it would have to come out. I know where pretty much every trail in town is, so I was a little confused.

After we finished at the park, Isaac and explored this potentially new trail. It turns out that it comes out in a person’s backyard/in between two houses. There is a very worn path in the one backyards from so much traffic that it was almost like a hiking trail. Once you got to front yard the path was not clear anymore but you could get right on the driveway. The picture below shows a blue circle where you can see a worn path in the park itself and the red line roughly traces the path through the woods in the backyard and out to the road.

Now, I was raised to not cut through people’s yards and so I felt guilty the whole time and after but this path seems so well warm that it makes me think the owners don’t care (or have given up).

So, my question is, if I am going to be a conscientious neighboorhood, can I take this shortcut?

My first thought was that I should just go over and ask the owners if they mind people cuttimg through. Although that would seem a little creepy to me. I personally would hate people coming through my yard all the time and I would have done what my Dad did and installed a fence to stop people from cutting through. My biggest concern about people cutting through would be re-sale. I can imagine the sale, “what is that path?” “Oh that is where a bunch 13-year olds walk through everyday.” Customer leaves.

On the other maybe they don’t care. It is clear that this path is well known and well used (given the level of erosion on it and the number of kids I saw walking through), so maybe it is okay.

Anyway, any thoughts would be appreciated.

Obviously, these posters are an expression of free speech and protest, but I wish there was some limit on the absurdity of what people are saying. Even if you disagree with the health care plan and think that it starts to move too far towards socialism, to compare any president to Adolph Hitler is clearly asinine! I can not even think of a better word to describe it. David Frum, a former speech writer for Bush, called the comparison between Obama and Hitler foolish and destructive and said it doesn’t have any place in America parlance. I agree.

I never would have thought that this was the way people would perceive the world. The Nazis systematically killed people to cleanse society. Obama is trying to keep people alive by giving them insurance. Hitler took the money and possessions of one social class of people to benefit the upper class. Obama is taxing the rich to help the poor. Obama is not creating death panels to sort people by importance any more than the status quo already does.

Similar misguided comparisons were made between Hitler and Bush and one such myoptic site can be found here.

Bush and Obama as very far from Nazis and ethic clensers. I support free speech, but I wish people would think about what they are saying and make good decisions about how they excercise that free speech. Comments comparing Obama or Bush to Hitler make America look stupid and are offensive to those who endured the Nazi regime. If you want to attack the health care plan, calling it a socialist policy accomplishes the task and is far less offensive.

However, it is a testament to the beauty of America that this discussion can even happen. As Voltaire (we think) said, “I may disagree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”

I also noticed this when we were on our honeymoon in Orlando. This was a second tier market (if that) and we we were caught in the middle of a hurricane while we were staying at Disney World.  While watching the news and tracking the storm, I developed a deep appreciation for people like Tom Skilling who are the best in the business who gravitate towards a major market because that is where the money is.

The Cult of Tom – Chicago magazine – June 2008 – Chicago via kwout

So, we come to the point of this entry. We in Chicago are fortunate to have some of the best baseball announcers in the country. First, for my beloved Cubs, we have Pat Hughes and Ron Santo. Pat Hughes is clearly a class act and one of the best announcers in the game. He has won the Illinois Sportscaster Award four times and the Wisconsin sportscaster award three times while he was working with Bob Uecker. He spends time before every game reading and researching everything there is to know about baseball. He is smooth, calm, collected, and funny. He has a classic style where he describes the uniforms of the players each game and gives detailed explanations of each hit. One time I heard someone talk about how he was better then the rest because he never just says, “There is a base hit to left,” he always describes the hit, such as, “There’s a hard line drive to left.” If you can’t be at the game, his descriptions are the best.

A reviewer at reviewstream.com points out that Pat’s 12 years of being a color analyst for Bob Uecker taught him what it meant to be a good color analyst and that helps him to work so seamlessly with his partner, Ron Santo. Ron Santo is the ultimate Cub’s fan. A lot of people do not like what he brings to the booth. They are put off  by his cheers and grunts and his pure passion for the game. For me, that is what I love about Ron. We were at a Cub’s-Brewer’s game in Milwaukee in 2009 and half the lights in the stadium turned off and my wife said, “I don’t feel complete without knowing what Ron thinks about this.” (Or something like that.)  Ron has a wealth of baseball knowledge in his head, and Pat allows him to bring it out. Other announcers would talk over Ron and treat him like an old blathering idiot. But Pat does an amazing job playing the straight man to Ron.

Some of the best parts of the broadcasts are when the Cubs are either winning really big or losing really big and they start running off on tangents. For example, they might get into a conversation about the Munsters or about Ron’s hair piece. My favorite joke was one night if was cold out and Ronnie said he was cold and Par asked him if he wanted a blanker for his legs. (This isn’t really funny unless you remember that Ron has two prostetic legs because he is a diabetic. Pat wasn’t being mean, it is just part of the routine, and I almost dies laughing.) I’m not saying that a more traditional show with Pat and a normal color analyst wouldn’t be good as well, but what Pat and Ron bring is special and when it is over, I will miss it. Even this season, Ron has been missing a lot of road trips and while Dave Otto and Keith Moreland bring a lot of knowledge to the booth, I miss Ron.

If you go to other cities, you just don’t get that kind of quality. Even turning to the White Sox broadcasts you get much more boring and monotonous talk.

However, on the TV side, the White Sox you have one of the best baseball analysts around, Steve Stone. Steve was a Cub’s announcer for twenty years alongside Hary Caray and then Chip Caray before he resigned from the Cub’s after the 2004 season. There are a lot of people who thought Stone was forced out after criticizing the team, but the Cub’s strongly deny that. After a hiatus from Chicago, Stone came back and was an analyst for 670 The Score sports radio and now is working for the White Sox. Steve Stone was also a TV analyst for ESPN and was nominated for the 2008 Ford C Frick Award. Steve Stone is a wealth of baseball knowledge and many times will predict what strategy is going to be put in place before it happens. He explains the game better than anyone I have heard, and in a way that a normal person can understand. Again, if you travel to other smaller markets, the quality drops off significantly. Even in the prior years with Singleton for the Sox you saw a less quality product.

So, there you have it. I am grateful that I live in a major market where I get the best of the best when it comes to sports broadcasting, news anchors, newspapers, etc… We don’t always realize how good we have it  but there are times when I notice it, and realize how good we have it here in Chicago.

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Anyway, while waiting at red light on the corner of Washington & Lake (pointing south) street another van, an electrical company, turned south onto Lake Street. Well the driver of the Van from Brad’s Heating and Cooling attempted to flick off the driver of the other van. I found this to be wholly inappropriate and made his company look very bad. I don’t know if maybe it was his friend and he was just being a guy and that was his way of saying, “Hi, how are you,” or if it was a bitter rival, in any event I took issue with his action for two reasons.

The first was the reason stated above and the second was the he didn’t give an actual flipping of the bird. As an example of what I mean, here is a photoshopped picture of President George W. Bush with the fake bird.

You see how the thumb is extended on the side. I get annoyed when people do this. If you feel the need to go through with this obscene gesture,

actually flip the bird. If you feel that the situation calls for that gesture or for obscene words to be used, people should just go all the way. I don’t like the act of flipping the bird and I try not to swear too often, but when I do, I let it rip and make sure there is no doubt of my intention.

In the movie My Fellow Americans, Jack Lemmon’s wife has a good quote regarding this.

The end of the quote is cut off and the basic gist is, If you’re gonna say the f-word, go for the gold.

The question still remains is swearing okay? Well, the blog The Art of Manliness posed the question, “Is it Manly to Swear?” The general opinion seemed to be it was manly to swear in certain situations but that less was more. One user named Ben posted my favorite comment:

With that being said, users also agreed that euphemisms for swear words should be used, which is in line with the theme of this post.

In conclusion, I say don’t swear. Expand your vocabulary. If you have to swear, go all the way!

During an interview with CNBC, as many people know, Obama swatted and subsequently killed a fly that had been buzzing around him during an interview in the White House.  The President displayed lightning quick reflexes in his strike at the fly and was congratulated by those around him. He did something that most Americans would do and wasn’t concerned about it. Here is the interview:

Well, someone was bound to be upset by the behind the scenes footage posted on the CNBC web-site. When question about the incident,  as you might of guess the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) were indeed dissapointed. They felt that Obama should have humanely trapped this fly and then released it somewhere. Here is the statement from their blog:

The PETA Files: Obama and the Fly via kwout

My favorite part of the response is when they refer to it as the “executive insect execution.” Far be it from me to say this, but that seems like a bit of an exaggeration. I think one commenter on The Star Telegram web-site stated the following:

I have to agree. Groups like this need to pick their battles and not seem so over the top and dogmatic as to be out of touch with reality.

However, maybe they are not all to be blamed. According to ecorazzi, PETA later released a statement saying that they wouldn’t have brought up the issue is the press hadn’t asked. Which I guess makes sense. PETA can’t say, “Oh, it’s okay to kill a fly, but nothing else.”

So, this seems reasonable. They are just pointing out that in America we have a good food system. But what is wrong with people growing their own food?

Apparently, not everyone can grow their own food, so no one should. {Shakes head.} In an e-mail the MACA sent out to its constituents sent out to their supporters their true feeling are revealed.

La Vida Locavore:: Organic White House Garden Puts Some Conventional Panties in a Twist via kwout

I am not an advocate of organic gardening. I don’t care either way. I believe that food can be grown well with or without chemicals. What just really gets my goat is that the Obamas are not going around saying you have to live organically. They just wanted to plant a garden to promote healthy eating and this group, the MACA, that seems to be supported by plant chemical producing companies goes and makes a big issue out of it and misses the point of the garden, healthy eating.

TheHill.com – First lady’s organic garden concerns chemical firms via kwout

In case you were wondering who is a member of the MACA, here is a list from their website.

As pointed out on the Food and Water Watch blog, it is especially interesting that they call it “conventional gardening” when people were gardening chemical free for centuries! Now, the organic side is just as biased towards being chemical free as the MACA is towards using chemicals, but the fact that this is an even an issue just makes me feel sorry for the Obamas who are trying to just live a normal life and promote healthy eating.

And, the notion that the White House garden is what is going to lead to people rejecting chemically grown food is ridiculous. I like that the White House grow organically, but the cost of organic food is going to keep me out of that market.

Also, the notion that the White House garden is what will out organic food on the map is also mis-guided. More and more stores, such as Jewel, are constantly increasing their organic sections and this is what putting organic on the map more than the White House is.

Both sides just need to celebrate the idea of growing food and eating healthy rather than focusing on the methodology all of the time.

The two best news shows in the country have covered this issue. Here are the clips.

He starts discussing the garden about half way through.