The View From Wisconsin

Haven't ranted for a while. Time to do some Thanks and Turkeys.

• I am thankful for the fact that I have my AHL Champion Milwaukee Admirals to watch (even if they haven't been home for most of this month).
• I think it's a bunch of turkey that I haven't seen a single NHL hockey game this year, because the players association is stubborn and the league is a pig-headed fool. (As for me, as Katherine Whithorn once said, I am simply firm.)
• I am thankful that I have a nice house, a fast computer and an even faster internet connection.
• The turkeys are in Detroit and Indianapolis. Except, of course, the king of turkeys (Ron Artest), who is out promoting his new rap album.

A little aside: the NBA's little "crisis" over the Pistons-Pacers fight-and-riot at Pontiac isn't part of some larger issue. It's a simple case of a lot of people making a lot of bad decisions at the same time. That, my friends, is the problem with this world - too many people make bad decisions, and when it all happens at the same time, it's ugly. As for the media coverage of this whole thing: someone needs to remind the people in Bristol that if it wasn't for the fans (who they so greatly lauded all last year in the "Season of the Fan" for their 25th anniversary promos), they'd still be sitting in trailers in a mud-hole outside of Hartford.

• I am thankful for the Green Bay Packers, whose injury situations, coaching quesitons and player moves make the media that covers them more like commentators about soap operas than anything else. And we can't get enough of it.
• It's a big turkey that everyone's more concerned over fights in the stands - or brawls on the field - than they are about whether or not the NHL is going to actually cancel their season in the near future.
• I am thankful that Mark Attanasio has made it perfectly clear what he wants to do as owner of the Milwaukee Brewers - "I want to win the World Series." My kind of guy.
• Turkey ala King: You mean to tell me that, in this day and age with Blueberry-wired cell phones, pagers, PDAs and laptops with wireless capabilities, we couldn't get some MRI results faxed to a handful of doctors so we could get a veteran catcher signed? I weep for the AMA.
• I am thankful that the Washington Nationals decided to stick with what's worked in the past and use the "pretzel W" logo for their new team caps. And the navy versions are pretty good, too.
• Turkey time: Anyone else out there who complains about the Desperate Housewives intro to MNF (or the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" - stick a drumstick in it, okay? The only people who're getting all hot and bothered about that are people in "blue" states that don't understand the people in "red" states.
• I am incredibly thankful that I am in a "red" county in a state that just barely went "blue" in November.
• The Turkeys Of The Year are the Liberal-Leftist Media who use the red/blue state metaphor to try to explain what's wrong with this country - without realizing that they are the ones to blame.
• I am thankful that we have a President who is concerned for our safety, our welfare, and our future...
• ...and the rest of the world is a bunch of turkeys for thinking otherwise.

Speaking of which: I see that the Paris 2012 Olympic bid has played the anti-American sentiment as their deal in the Olympic Bid game. Hmmm... maybe we should consider not going to the '12 Olympics if they're in France. Instead, hold our own "International Sports Festival" in New York, and invite the coalition of countries that helped us in Afghanistan and Iraq to come play. Get Colin Powell on it, he's not doing anything right now...

• I am thankful that Dan Rather is "retiring" from CBS. He should have done that years ago.
• The ultimate turkey: Mr. Vang, if you think that anyone's going to buy the "they called me names, so I shot them" story...

I still can't believe the whole hunter "massacre" in Northern Wisconsin over the weekend. It's unfathomable. (There's something I could say here, but my profession prohibits me from commenting about it.) I do, however, have co-workers that know the fellows who were killed or hurt - if the accusations that Vang is making are true, then I'm a poached egg.

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"That's enough for now - just remember, Ron Artest, when you sit down to the table tomorrow: you are what you eat..."