On the CBS Evening News last night (you remember that broadcast don't you? Used to be anchored by Dan Rather until he tried to report about how President Dubya forged documents to get out of flight training back in his National Guard days? But I digress...) they had a story about a 38-year old Baltimore mother of three who is the quite possibly the oldest cheerleader in the National Football League. She said she made a list of things she wanted to accomplish in life while she was in high school and being an NFL cheerleader was on it. And she's no sympathy case, some token middle-aged housewife slumming with the debutantes. No, she kept up with all the moves and has abs that Shakira would kill for. Among the other goals she's accomplished from the list--interning on Capitol Hill, completing a marathon and climbing to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. You go girl! You see, lists can be powerful things, especially if you have a little thing called follow-through. I'm great at making lists, but not always so hot at crossing things off the list. I still have a list somewhere that says "ask Jackie Trujillo to the Senior Prom", but I never did it. Obviously, I can take a lesson from the cheerleader.
Lists are also good for organizing your thoughts on a particular subject. They help to provide clarity when you have a difficult choice--should I or shouldn't I get divorced or get married? Which grad school should I go to? Which new car should I by, so on and so forth. As an example, I've put together a couple of lists which should help the Senate decide whether or not they should vote to confirm Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. I think you'll agree that it's much easier to analyze things in list form:
FOR MIERS
* She seems really nice.
* She'll remind a lot of people of their grandmamas.
* She seems to have never had sex, or to have an active sex life, so as long as the GOP Reich-wing can be convinced she's not a lesbian there won't be any "pubic hair on the Coke can" type controversies at her confirmation hearings.
AGAINST MIERS
* She once called President George W. Bush, "the smartest man I have ever known."
* She has never been a judge.
* She has never been a law professor. She graduated in the "top 20 percent" of the second best law school - in the state of Texas. (This is sort of like being the star basketball player in the pygmy league or head chef of the Donner Party.)
* In 1989 she apparently wrote a paper where she supported the abolition of abortion rights except when the life of the mother is at stake. So much for not being an "activist" judge.
* She was Bush's lawyer in Texas--she was most notable for representing him when charged with DUI's in the late 1970s and for being part of the legal team that sucessfully beat back his sexual assaul allegations shortly before he became governor.
* As a lawyer Miers has never once served as the lead counsel of a prominent , nationally known civil or criminal case.
See how much clearer things are when they're in list form! I have no doubt which way I'd vote now if I were in the Senate. Unless, of course, someone were to promise me a seat on a board of stockholders somewhere once I left office, in exchange for voting the other way. Not that that EVER happens in the Senate...
Answer to the Previous Blog's Brainteaser
Honolulu (Hawaii), Helena (Montana), Hartford (Connecticut) and the one I always forget, Harrisburg (Pennsylvania). Did you get them all without looking them up? Yeah, b****h, quit lyin'...
I joke, I joke, I kid, I kid. Coming later this week, reviews of the new albums by Stevie Wonder and Franz Ferdinand, why I hate Oakland Raider fans and love the White Sox plus another brainteaser.
Until then, peace...and bring our troops home!
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