(Subtitled:  How to begin the first Lightning Round in 2009)

Apparently there is a belief that America hasn't been cool since Slick Willie was getting serviced by Monica... So inaugurations are either cool or not... I think the Obama presidency will be a political and economic nightmare, but a milestone like a black man becoming president isn't a horrible thing... So who really thought the Cards would take out Atlanta, Carolina and Philadelphia?  Not many, as they were dogs for all three games (two of those games at home)... Pittsburgh is good - not great -, but Arizona is not gooder so look for the Steelers to win The Big Game (because I can still call it that!)... What the hell's the matter with Anquan Boldin?  Can't you be happy about going to The Big Game?  Hell, Asante Samuel was excited about losing the NFC Championship... Being busy at work in inversely proportional to the amount of blogging that I do... Did everybody watch the season premiere of Flight of the Conchords yesterday?  No?  Did you at least watch the season premiere of Big Love?  Thank goodness for DVRs because I actually watched the four-hour football game last night... Tommasino Italia now serves lunch during the week, including the best chili this side of 17th & Wells... Speaking of chili... The Milwaukee Wave game this weekend will feature a tribute to the past, honoring their 25th season.  After the game will be an alumni game... Ask me a Wave trivia question, I bet I know it.  I also bet that no more than 10 non-employees have seen as many home games in 25 years as I have... I hate when websites get too cute.  I tried to link from the Wave's homepage, but it is all Java-y and wouldn't let me... First one to stump me on a Wave trivia question (and you'd better be dang sure of the answer) wins a MyCommunityNOW.com pad of post-it notes and a pen... I haven't mentioned bowling yet... Planning a trip to Las Vegas in April for the USBC national tournament.  I found rooms at the Sahara for $28/night, but flights (at convenient times) are still hovering in the $250 range...  There, the obligatory mention of bowling.

I did not choose to serve in the Armed Forces.  I want to thank those who risked their lives so I didn't have to; those who risked their lives to protect my right NOT to serve.

During the 1980 Presidential election, I was 12 years old and understandably not into politics.  I do remember that Ronald Reagan was being portrayed as a warmonger who would lead us to a nuclear war with the Soviets - not particulary a comforting thought to a pre-teen.  I also remember that in March of 1986 (the month I turned 18) Reagan had ordered maneuvers past Mohammar Qadaffi's "Line of Death" bay off of Libya.  In April, after the US bombed Tripoli and Qadaffi was neutralized, I learned that sometimes military force is needed.  I also learned about international terrorism.  And I learned that I wasn't one to stamp it out. 

Subsequant to my 18th birthday when I chose not to serve, there was very little war and therefore very few military combat deaths until the Gulf War in 1991 (when I was 25).  Although to this day I wish 41 would have finished the job, victory was quick and decisive, again with very little loss of American life.

So as I enter this blog entry today, I can reflect on those that covered me, in other words, those that chose to join the service to do the job that I felt needed to be done.  I sincerely thank those men and women.

Just as importantly, I thank the men and women that preceded my 18th birthday by serving in World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, and anywhere else little skirmishes arose.  (Side note - On Veteren's Day only, I suspend the ongoing discussion with my family that I was in a Viet Cong interrnment camp in Da Nang, and that Granmammy Evans got me through it by giving me Alton's Macaroni & Cheese recipe).

I also want to let the Veterens know - especially the ones that have served in Afghansitan and Iraq over the past five years - that regardless of what the Barack Obama administration will do in those countries (as well as possibly in Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Venezuela and Columbia) your service will not be in vain. 

I am fearful of what Obama will do in the foreign affairs arena.  But regardless of the direction he takes (and who knows, he could be brilliant) it was the soldiers that fought for me, my rights, my freedom, my country, and my flag that made it possible for him to be President, and for me to oppose him. 

From the soldiers that are now in the August of their years that served in Europe and Japan in the 1940s, to the ones in Korea and Viet Nam that were there to halt the spread of communism and protect American interests, to the current troops fighting not against countries, but against religious ideology.  Even if you served but never went to war, the fact is that you were there - prepared to go - if your country needed you.  All of you should be thanked respectfully and continuously. 

I will talk with my son, Mitten, and stepson, Grizzly about possible service when they hit 18 in a couple of years.  If they choose not to serve, that is fine and I can't complain - I made that same decision.  But if they do choose serve, they too will do a great honor to their country and will be deserving of the thanks of a nation.

The thousands of you - well, make that the 18 of you that actually read my blog post from last week - may be wondering how the pre-Hallowe'en weekend worked out.  Well, do I have a story for you...

Thursday evening, (Sponsor's Name Here)'s Official Baby Brother, St. Jon, called with another potential doin' for the weekend.  I had forgotten that Downtown West Allis was holding its Meet & Treat from 10:00 AM to Noon on Saturday along W. Greenfield Ave. 

So during the best weather segment of last weekend, My-Sugar-Na and I took the daughters (Gooey and Sloppy) and met St. Jon and his wife, Strawberry Fields, and kids Jelly Bean and Mr. Cranky Pants behind City Hall to start meeting and treating.  The three girls ranged from scary to cute (clockwise from upper left, Gooey, Sloppy and Jelly Bean)...

Also in tow was Vier Pogo Squad 51, dressed as his "separated at birth" twin, Law & Order charachter Max Greevey...

Along the way, St. Jon mentioned that Jelly Bean was afraid of big, mascot type charachters.  But not too long after he said that, we found favorite Sesame Street charachter Elmo (on the left, with St. Jon in the center and Jelly Bean on the right)...

(Side note:  Nobody believes me when I tell them, but the puppeteer and voice for Elmo on Sesame Street is a 6'5" black guy.  Don't believe me either?  Read this.)

 Following closely behind on Greenfield Ave. were Strawberry Fields (pushing Mr. Cranky Pants) and My-Sugar-Na...

Overall it was a great time.  We started right about 10:00 AM and the volume was light as we headed east from S. 75th St.  But by the time we reached the turnaround on S. 70th St., there were kids everywhere!  At a couple of stores, the lines were at least 10 deep.  However, we completed the loop in about 75 minutes, and the kids got quite a haul.

After bidding adieu to St. Jon's family, we went home and plotted our course.  Still expecting bad weather all day Sunday, we let the girls talk us into driving to our previous neighborhood in Bay View for their nighttime Trick-or-Treat that Saturday evening.  (Side note:  I have lived in three different Bay View neighborhoods in my life, and some of the areas can get a little seedy.  However, there are a lot of nice homes in Bay View, especially between Howell Ave. and Pine St. just south of Oklahoma Ave.  It was in that area where I was stunned by the number of Obama yard signs.  They outnumbered McCain signs 10:1.  So the first house that we approach that has an Obama yard sign allows me to comment "Kids, get your candy here this year.  By next year if Obama wins, they won't be able to afford to give away candy".  Right next door was another Obama yard sign, and I said "Kids, get your candy her...." at which point, My-Sugar-Na says that kids dressed in costume don't care about what I think.  Sigh.  I'd better keep her occupied on November 4th, just in case.)

We get home around 8:30 Saturday night with enough candy to compete with Freese's.  Once the girls collapse into a sugar coma and go to bed, My-Sugar-Na and I discuss the fact that I only procured a cannister of 240 Tootsie Pops. Because I - as man and blogger - know everything, I assure her that due to the weather forecast, of course it will be enough candy.

So Sunday morning rolls around, and it is beautifully bright and sunny.  A little chilly, sure, but not nearly as bad as had been predicted.  Sigh.  So not only do I start worrying about my 240 suckers, but the girls start begging relentlessly about allowing them to Trick-or-Treat AGAIN.  I give in to them, and at 1:00 PM, my wife dutifully begins passing out the candy to the children.

Although the weather slowly deteriorated to cloudy and windy (and with a few rain drops for good measure), the kids kept coming...

OK, so we ran out of candy.  Sort of.  You see, two prior Trick-or-Treating events gave us lots of, um, let's call them "reinforcements".  I dutifully counted 25 suckers (Dum-dums, Charms, you name it) from both Gooey's and Sloppy's stashes, snuck them into the Tootsie Pop cannister, and we made it stretch until all children had been serviced.  And until they read this (unless they stop looking once they see their photo) they are nonethewiser.

(Side note: When Mitten was way, way younger - as in "pre-Gooey", he was to small too eat all of the Hallowe'en candy and Easter candy that he received.  One particular year we ran out of candy for handing out, so we actually went into the cannister of Easter and the previous year's Trick-or-Treat candy that we never finished [actually, I think we had plum forgot about it until it was "go" time].  At least the re-candying we did Sunday afternoon was only a day old instead of that year old stuff!)

Now with that said, why isn't Trick-or-Treat on Hallowe'en Night?  It worked out great in Bay View, and also in the Wedgewood Park neighborhood (in which I lived in a prior life) where Trick-or-Treating is at night.  It is way cooler than on a Sunday afternoon.

There will be one last event for My-Sugar-Na and Vier Pogo Squad 51, that would be the "Howl at the Moon Dog Walk" in New Berlin on Wednesday, October 29th @ 6:30 PM.  Our own Max Greevey will hope to win the costume contest.

Ok, so I'm not really a plumber, not named Joe, from Ohio, or looking to buy the business in which I am currently employed.

By now, most everybody knows (and if you don't, read this) that Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher is not named "Joe", is not a liscenced plumber in the State of Ohio, has a lein on his property for back taxes, may not be a registered voter, and is bald.

But like Joe, I would like to be able to ask a question of a political leader and not ground into dirt for it.  Joe and I have other things in common.  I've had a few tax issues, I don't have a liscence or degree in my profession, and I too am bald(ing).

Joe asked a good question, and because Barack Obama stopped in the guy's driveway, he should not have been condemned for asking that question.  Do you know why else I am not an Obama supporter (besides the fact that he is by far the most liberal Presidential candidiate in eons)?  Because he is just a PR stunt.  I was watching PBS' Frontline last week and they had a dual biography of both Obama and John McCain.  While the first 45 minutes or so was kind of by-the-numbers, when they started talking about Obama's first few days in the Senate, they (and define "they" how ever you'd like) started grooming him for this run...

As McCain the maverick was trying to make peace with his party, Obama the newcomer was being urged by party elders to consider a future run for the White House. Within two years of his arrival in the Senate, a window of opportunity seemed open, if he was willing to take the chance.

"I told him he should do it," former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle tells FRONTLINE. "The longer he's in Washington, the more history he has, and the more history he has, the more he's going to be explaining his votes and his actions and his statements and his positions that undermine his message" -- a message that was all about breaking with the past.

My eyes popped open and my mind started racing.  Did I really just hear Daschle imply that he should do nothing, so that he can't be ripped down?  He wasn't a Senator, he was a black figurehead.  As a state senator in Illinois, Obama voted "present" numerous times... often possibly so that the vote couldn't be held against him.  Since "present" is not an option in the US Senate, he went ahead and voted his way to the title of Most Liberal Senator of 2007 according to the National Journal.

But that's not why I am voting for John McCain (though the above is a hell of a reason).  Basically of the two, McCain comes closest to my views (and I want to reiterate the same thing I mentioned around primary time... that of the all of the brilliant university graduates and political scientists, these two morons are the best we could come up with).

On February 19th, as a response to a comment made in this blog entry, I listed what I wanted in a president...

"I can't afford an Obama presidency.  I want a president to stop spending, so taxes can be cut and the deficit reduced.  Defense spending, however, to defend our nation from another 9/11 attack, as well as to prevent attacks on American interests on foreign soil is absolutely critical.  

I want a president that chucks the illegal aliens out of the country (the jailed ones first).  I want a president that is morally conservative - no abortion, no gay marraiges, etc.  I want a president that realizes that this is a global economy and that for an American company to be profitable, components will be made in foreign countries.  We need to embrace this and work to up the exports to those countries of the finished goods.  Balanced with that, I want a president that works to keep government out of businesses.  The less government, the better.  I want a president to understand that the climate of this planet has been changing for millions of years, and that it will continue to change... and to understand that the global climate in 1876 might not be the perfect temperature.  I want a president to appoint conservative judges - both to US courts and the Supreme Court - to try to stem the tide of "feel good" legislation and reduce the mountain-out-of-molehill lawsuits.

Now, find where the platforms of Obama or Clinton (or Huckabee or McCain, for that matter) match up with my views.  I know that George Bush wasn't the ultimate president (not all can be Ronald Reagan), but if he were running for a third term against these dufuses, I would vote Bush in a heartbeat."

WIth that said, I suggest that you take the ABC News "Match-o-Matic II" test.  It is actually more of a game to determine if you can guess which candidate made a particular quote on 12 issues.  I took the test, and of the 12 sets of quotes, I correctly identified McCain on 11 of them.  The one I missed?  It had to do with the myth of global warming (which we all know can't be attributed to man, and that American's can't afford to fix, right?)  See how many statements you agree with.

Because if Obama and his partymates get their death grip on Washington DC next month, God help us all.

I've been told that my grill/FD story made the paper this morning - I'll have to buy a paper now...  Unfortunately, my buddy trumped me... It'll be BO vs. Mc in November, I'm sure I'll pull it together and vote for the RIGHT guy...  It's cold outside...  The lunar eclipse was cool...  Watched the remake of Hairspray; very interesting...  Jesse Martin is leaving Law & Order...  Taking my first trip to New York City in May...  Family didn't die of carbon monoxide poisoning overnight...  I love my job...  I should lose weight...  I miss bowling...  I'm worried about the ice dams on my roof all winter...  American Idol is dopey...  I could spend hours looking at this website...  Trying to get over the fact that Milwaukee lost the USBC Masters...  The cost of every metal I purchase for work is skyrocketing right now...  My birthday is on Holy Saturday this year, and (Sponsor's Name Here)'s Official Daughter, Gooey, celebrates her birthday on Easter Sunday... My car needs a good cleaning on the inside...  Planning on going to Wrigley Field on April 2 or 3 to watch the Brewers/Cubs game...  Our office is buying pizza for lunch tomorrow, I get to pick the sausage off...  I felt it was a good set of comments on my Obama post, aren't you glad West Allis can talk to each other without it breaking down into this or this?

Catch ya later when I have something interesting to say. 

I was playing poker with the guys on Saturday night, and of the seven other guys, most of the table was lamenting the lack of a real conservative still in the hunt.  Two of the players are early-20ish guys, and one said that he really likes Barack Obama because "He stands for change".  The other guy chimed in with comments about young people getting turned away from his rallies and appearances.  I didn't ask (because it was the wrong place) but I've now been wondering for three days...

What change?  And why - just because young adults like the guy - does that make him a good president? 

I mean, any new president will be a change.  Like him or lump him, Mike Huckabee is a change from George Bush.  That doesn't qualify either of them.  And in this MTV-style, short attention span, E!-tainment, sound bite culture we live in, I can't imagine all of these young adults that like this good-looking, relatively young politician actually know (or care) what he stands for.  But the sound bite says "Change", and the banner behind Obama always says "Change", so dammit, he must be the guy.  I don't get it.  Change what?

So I "Googled" Obama.  (Side note - vote for who you want to.  I don't like any of these four morons, so I am the last person to tell you who to vote for.  But I understand the candidate's positions, and Obama couldn't be further away from my opinions).  There is no chance that I will vote for him, but I am intrigued in this "change".  If you disregard Obama's website (and his Senate page) and the Wikipedia articles that aren't always based in fact, you will see a whole lot of non-substance.  There are two music videos, a MySpace page, and links to news articles.

In other words, there isn't anything out there that doesn't take a lot of digging to get to.  So I chose one that looked good called On the Issues, and here is a summary of what I found...

• He is OK with abortion, partial-birth abortion and with stem-cell testing (all is now legal, no change there)
• Wanted seniors and unemployed to get part of recent sutimulous package (which happened under Dub-ya)
• OK with affirmative action for women and minorities (status quo)
• Decisions about gay marraiges to be left to each state (just like now)
• Do not lower drinking age from 21 to 18 (current law is 21)

Read the article for yourself, but there isn't a lot of change that Obama supports.  What we appear to be left with is a person who is not George Bush that is good-looking and well-spoken.  But not a person qualified to run the last super power in the world.  And certainly the fact that he has a disconcerting number of groupies that may push him into office scares the hell out of me.