Baseball and football lost a legend of broadcasting when longtime Philadelphia Phillies announcer and NFL Films voiceover man Harry Kalas passed away yesterday. A true and genuine legend. But the fans of Philadelphia lost so much more than that. Jayson Stark of ESPN and formerly of Philadelphia, described it best, when he wrote that Harry “was what baseball sounded like.” Harry was summer, and baseball, and that sweet escape that only our national pasttime can bring for Phillies fans, and I can’t imagine what a Phillies broadcast will be like from now on.

Harry Kalas went as, I imagine, he would have preferred. In the booth. He collapsed before the Phils game with the Nationals in Washington, and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

I was not born in Philadelphia. In fact, I’ve only lived here in the area for about 8 years. And I’ve only been married to a Phillies fan for 10 years…but I always knew who Harry Kalas was and what he means to the fans of Philadelphia.

Like Harry Caray in Chicago and Vin Scully in LA, Harry was the distinctive voice of Phillies baseball. But more than that, he was a warm and decent human being. Caring. And not a mean bone in his body. Voice mails all over the Delaware Valley bear Harry’s distinctive voice, as he never turned down a fan’s request to record an outgoing message. He was just that nice. And in a world of “me, me, me”…that’s rare. The genuine emotion on the faces of his collegues and friends and the players…you can’t fake that. He earned their respect and love, not just because he was great at what he did…but because he was, quite simply, a wonderful human being.

Philadelphia and the rest of the world is all the richer for having known Harry Kalas. And all the poorer now for his passing, today…and forever.

I watched the ER finale last night. 15 years. Wow. It doesn’t seem possible. I remember literally flipping a coin to decide whether to watch ER or Chicago Hope, as both hospital dramas premiered the same night. Thankfully, I believe I chose correctly.

I have to admit, I haven’t watched ER for a few years, ever since they had a storyline where an Iraq vet admitted to torturing and killing Iraqi civilians. That really pissed me off, bad enough to make me swear off the show I’ve loved for all these years.

But since this was the last season, I thought I would give it a chance. And they did a nice job with the final season, especially with the past character cameos. It was nice seeing Doug and Carol, although seeing them in Chicago would have been more satisfying.

I believe a lot of people are going to say that last night’s finale wasn’t “spectacular”, but I honestly loved it. They paid homage to the pilot (having the Nurse Lydia (who hasn’t been on the show in years) wake Archie, the same way she did Dr. Greene in the first scene of the show), and threw in nods to several of their most memorable episodes (including the best episode ever written for television, ‘Loves Labor Lost’), so I was satisfied. And you can never go wrong with Ernest Borgnine, as well as a quick, funny cameo by Marilu Henner as an overbearing mother-in-law.

Plus, in a nice little tie to the past, Mark Greene’s daughter, Rachel, appeared as a potential new med student. Carter even called her, “Dr. Greene” at the end of the show. Made me a little misty, as I believe that Anthony Edwards’s character is one of the deepest, most endearing to ever appear on television. I always hated that he left the show.

All in all, I thought it was a nice finale to a long-loved show. They really redeemed themselves with me this season. Now, I’ll actually miss it.

If you’re still interested in watching the finale, NBC is re-running it in it’s entirety on Saturday, April 4th at 8PM Eastern. If you can’t catch it then, watch it here:

xhttp://www.nbc.com/ER/video/episodes/#vid=1080421

In a recent blog post at The Daily Beast, Meghan McCain had to defend herself against a ridiculous attack from fellow female Laura Ingraham about Meghan’s weight. Ingraham stated that McCain was “too plus-sized to be a cast member on the television show The Real World”, and criticized Meghan’s weight in a story about Barbie’s 50th Birthday.

First and foremost…Meghan McCain is far from fat. She isn’t even really “chubby”. Not “zaftig”, either. She’s a perfectly healthy, perfectly beautiful young woman.

Secondly, I don’t think I even have to mention the fact that discussing someone’s looks in the midst of honest political debate only serves to torpedo your entire argument…and it makes you look petty and unintelligent.

Finally….What is it with you women, anyway? I mean, seriously. We already have a hard enough time in this world, trying to be taken seriously by a male-dominated society that always, always looks at our rack before they listen to what we have to say. Why on Earth would we help them out by trying to lower ourselves to their standards?

Hillary Clinton, not my most favorite person on the planet (but certainly not in my bottom 10), managed to accrue 18 million votes in the Democratic primaries, despite the “cankles” comments and pants suit ridicules. The fact is, she shouldn’t have even had to endure that. While I do not agree with any of Hillary’s policies or world views, she is an accomplished, intelligent woman. And her looks have nothing to do with that. Any reasonable Democrat should be able to say the same thing about Condoleeza Rice.

What does it say about us, as women, when instead of supporting each other in our endeavors and opinions (agree or disagree), we continue to prepetuate the long-standing tradition of evaluating successful women simply by their looks?

Looks have nothing to do with what kind of a person you are, we should all know that by now. It’s disgraceful that we even have to be reminded.

On January 21, I promised myself that I would give President Obama the benefit of the doubt. I already knew that I would be supporting his office, if not the man. Rooting for him to fail (and no, not his ill-intentioned march towards Socialism…the man himself) would be un-American. We live in the greatest country in the World. We should want our Commander in Chief to succeed.

Lately, however…the sheer magnitude of the job seems to be overwhelming King President Obama. Aside from the absolute disaster of several of his Cabinet posts, his missteps have been pretty huge for someone who is only in his first 50-odd days of a 4 year reign. Lets recap:

The Stimulus Package

I think we can all agree that this behemouth is going to help absolutely no one. I listed some of the more dubious clauses contained in the text of the package in my last blog post.

Banning Off-Shore Oil Drilling

The Obama administration blocked offshore drilling plans put in place at the last minute by the Bush administration, including plans to open the national outer continental shelf for drilling.They say they are going to “review” the measure…again. This has been talked to death, and no viable alternative, nor any good argument against the drilling has been put forth.

Going After Rush Limbaugh

Rush is a private citizen. Yes, he is a vocal member of the Republican electorate, but to call him out in public, and assign him some sort of mystical hold over the GOP has only served to expose Obama’s fear of dissent…in any form. Plus, it only makes Rush more powerful….which is, I imagine, the opposite effect they were going for.

Snubbing the British

Yes, I know…we divorced them over 200 years ago. But they are now one of our most powerful and loyal allies. And yet, gifts given to us are either being returned or hidden (Oval office bust of Churchill), and the loser Chicago Bulls were treated with more respect on their visit to the White House than PM Gordon Brown was on his first visit. 25 DVD’s? Really?

Look, I know there is going to be a learning curve. (Lets ignore the fact that there really shouldn’t be, for the most powerful job on the planet) But apparently, Obama’s first and most major blunder seems to be that he can’t manage to hire people who at the very least make him look good. At this point, their greatest achievement seems to be in getting their boss his job.

And that is just not going to cut it.

So I’ve been perusing the stimulus bill, and there are some interesting little tidbits in there that I’m sure the average citizen would never hear about:

~National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: For an additional amount for `Operations, Research, and Facilities’, $400,000,000, for habitat restoration and mitigation activities.

~Inventory of Broadband Service Capability and Availability: (a) Establishment- To provide a comprehensive nationwide inventory of existing broadband service capability and availability, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (`NTIA’) shall develop and maintain a broadband inventory map of the United States that identifies and depicts the geographic extent to which broadband service capability is deployed and available from a commercial provider or public provider throughout each State.

~National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): For an additional amount for `Science’, $400,000,000, of which not less than $250,000,000 shall be solely for accelerating the development of the tier 1 set of Earth science climate research missions recommended by the National Academies Decadal Survey.

~Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: For an additional amount for `Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’, $18,500,000,000, which shall be used as follows: (1) $2,000,000,000 shall be for expenses necessary for energy efficiency and renewable energy research, development, demonstration and deployment activities, to accelerate the development of technologies, to include advanced batteries, of which not less than $800,000,000 is for biomass and $400,000,000 is for geothermal technologies.

~National Endowment for the Arts: For an additional amount for `Grants and Administration’, $50,000,000, to be distributed in direct grants to fund arts projects and activities which preserve jobs in the non-profit arts sector threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downturn.

And finally, my personal favorite:

~Office of Job Corps: For an additional amount for `Office of Job Corps’, $300,000,000, for construction, rehabilitation and acquisition of Job Corps Centers, which shall be available upon the date of enactment of this Act and remain available for obligation through June 30, 2010.

According to the Heritage Foundation’s findings, Job Corps is a complete and utter waste of money. But then again, after reading more and more of this bill, it looks like just the thing for our current government.

Is anyone else sick to their stomach?

Oh, and a special “Thanks for nothing” to Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and the ever-reliable Arlen Spector for not only selling out their party, but every American who was counting on them to stand their ground. Hope that extra bill you’re going to get pushed though was worth it, you traitors.

It is a politician’s job to tell you what you want to hear. That’s generally accepted by most savvy voters as a ploy to get your vote. Barack Obama is a master at this kind of politicking, and especially at making you believe that what he says, he means. Or, at least he used to be.

On the campaign trail, he was insulated by a complicit mainstream media, this is true. And it’s also true that, as President, the king makers in the MSM love to tear you down. And they have been allowing glimpses into what Obama is really like as of late. But this new side of Obama the President, the pandering, butt-kissing side, is becoming quite unappetizing.

Case in point:

At the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton Hotel on Thursday, Obama claimed that he believes that; “There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know.”.

Oh really?

The White House website states, Obama “has been a consistent champion of reproductive choice and will make preserving women’s rights under Roe v. Wade a priority in his Adminstration.”

So now we have this question: What, exactly, is an “innocent human being”, if not an unborn child?

I have no doubt that Obama meant this as an abstract idea…something that could be tailored to mean whatever he needed it to mean at the moment. He might have very well meant it to convey his distaste of abortion, in front of the perfect audience. In fact, it’s entirely possible that his ridiculous claim that knowing when life starts was, “above my pay grade”, was entirely honest on his part…stupid as it was. But I highly doubt it.

The pro-abortion psychos are part of the foundation of Obama’s High Holy (but not HOLY) Church of Liberalism, and for him to turn on them would be insanity at it’s best. In fact, his sycophantic, brainwashed, supporters might even stop their three-times-daily prayer towards their homemade Obama altars if they even sniffed a hint that he actually believes human life begins at conception. And lets not ignore the fact that he repealed the so-called Mexico City policy, which requires any non-governmental organization to agree before receiving U.S. funds that they will “neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations.”

So the only real question we have left here is…who honestly, in their right mind, can ever believe anything a politician ever says? Ever? Even the Obamamessiah is not above pandering to get what he wants. It’s telling to watch him show his true colors, as the complete package of perfect politician and perfect ass.

Change, indeed.

As a member of several forums, I have had varied experiences when it comes to interacting with liberals and moderates. Several seem to be friendly and tolerant, like most of the conservatives I know. There’s always bound to be bad apples in every bunch, but where I’ve chosen to post the majority seem nice.

However, at two of the forums I post, neither of which are political sites, I’ve noticed that since the coronation of His Majesty, King Obamamessiah, the liberals seem to be emboldened to the point of manic intolerance. They were never terribly nice or intelligent to begin with, but since the election and inauguration, they’ve finally begun to feel safe and comfortable enough to come out of the closet, so to speak, as the feckless, ignorant, cruel, exclusionary jackasses they really are.

On one board in particular, there has been a concerted effort by a small group of even smaller women to systematically eliminate anyone who doesn’t fall into lockstep with their liberal agenda. They gather at another board (by all accounts, a classless hate-fest-type place) and plot and plan against a small group of conservatives they despise, simply because of their political affiliation. They’ll tell you that *they* are the victims, but we all know that’s bunk. If any one group has cornered the market on faking victimhood, it’s liberals. In any case, they managed to sour my enjoyment of posting at that forum and I left of my own accord. I still have friends there who continue to fight the good fight, but they are severely outnumbered.

At another board, the hate fest is lead by a moderator who leans so far left he can’t walk a straight line anymore. He managed to get a social group for conservatives deleted, then decided to lay down special “rules” for the conservatives to follow, none of which are in effect for his liberal buddies in their social group. And the treatment on the forum is no better. All conservatives are “ugly”, “stupid”, “intolerant” (the irony and hypocrisy completely misses them apparently) and “mean”. Each and every thread started about or by a conservative is immediately taken over by the hateful left and turned into a train wreck, with all the blame deflected on the one group who were acting like adults in the first place. It’s sadly pathetic.

Before the coronation, the liberals were merely annoying. But since January 20, they’ve become downright Hitler-esque. They are emboldened by their leadership in command, and I fear it’s only going to get worse. We’re less than a month into the new administration, and we’ve already seen the path to come.

“I won, so I think on that one I trump you.”….We shouldn’t have expected anything else.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the tragedy in California, where Ervin Lupoe slaughtered his whole family, including five young children. According to the mainstream media, Mr. Lupoe killed his family because he and his wife had lost their jobs and didn’t feel like they had anywhere else to turn.

The reality of the situation is that the Lupoes were fired from their jobs because they forged supervisor’s signatures on some paperwork, and misrepresented their income to a government agency that provides child care assistance. While I have a certain amount of sympathy for their situation, it’s not something that they had no control over.

But in order to prop up their Presidential Savior, the MSM need you to believe that because of the financial mess Bush put us in (yes, I know…don’t get me started) people are starting to off themselves and their families because they see no other recourse.

Anyone with half a brain knows that this is hogwash designed to engender both ire for Bush and support for Obama. It is nothing but a disgusting ploy, and I don’t know why I am even surprised anymore at the depths they will sink to push their agenda.

There are hundreds of thousands of people in this country who are losing their jobs due to a combination of a downturn in the economy, corporate greed and fiscal government irresponsibility, and yet 99.9% of them are not choosing to off their entire families in a desperate attempt to get out from under a crushing personal debt. In fact, I would venture to guess that even the mass majority of those who are taking the easy way out are not in as bad of shape as the media would lead you to believe…or, if they are, have gotten that way over a number of years and by a number of different avenues…not the least of which is irresponsibility on their own parts.

Don’t misunderstand me, there are people in this country who are desperate and in need of help. I can’t even imagine how you get to a place where you think that your only answer is the needless slaughter of your loved ones, or even just yourself. But to blame the economy or the state of the country for a few lost souls’ final acts is misleading. And it’s disgustingly wrong.

I would love to ask the media to quit using these people to attack the former President and the minority Republicans in Washington DC., but I think I would have more success getting President Obama to admit he’s friends with Willaim Ayers.

I don’t know how they live with themselves.

I love AlfonZo Rachel. He’s incredibly intelligent.

For more information and videos on AlfonZo, check out his website. His videos are also available on YouTube.

So yesterday we inaugurated our nation’s first (half) black President. Whether you like him or not (and I think we all know how I feel about it), it is a resounding statement about how far this country has come in terms of racism, and we should all be proud.

Now, I’ve always been of the mind that racism in this country has been steadily and markedly improving in the last 30 years….but being a white chick I have a very different perspective than someone who is actually black. (Of course, I take the Ann Coulter tack when it comes to the perpetual victim hood displayed in this country on a daily basis, and I refuse to carry any “white guilt” for something I have never done, and was raised specifically NOT to do.) I have never been (as far as I know) subject to discrimination, even as a woman, so my personal view might be a tad skewed in that respect.

For now, I am going to be proud that our country looked past Barack Obama’s (half) color, and chose who they believed the best choice for this country…even if I think they were fooled beyond reason by the lying, scheming MSM and the Democratic party….and their own ignorant, blind hate for a President who kept their asses from being blown up for the last 8 years.

But whatever. Michelle’s dress was pretty.