FRESH MEAT

I answer the mocking challenge of the blank screen with yet another "notes blog." Please forgive me...

**Fire, Fire Everywhere - oh, this is one of those days when I don't miss living in Los Angeles, but I do definitely feel for the residents of that city. I remember when I would try to go for a walk during a nearby brush fire and it felt my lungs would fill with ash. (I would think to myself, if that's what smoking is like, then what the hell is the appeal?) Hang in there L.A. Remember, there's still two months left in peak fire season.

The brush fires did inspire this week's haiku:

Los Angeles smokes
Smells of burnt mesquite and ash
Rains down like stardust

**To all you Denver Broncos fans out there, denial is a river in Africa. Trust your eyes, not your heart. This Broncos team is just as bad as it seems.

The Head Coach, Josh McDaniels, comes off like one of those punks straight out of the Ivy League, who thinks he can run the branch office just because he graduated near the top of his class at PrincetonBrownYale and he figures that if you treat everybody like shit you're being fair because you're not playing favorites and yes, damn it, it is a meritocracy. Only it's NOT a meritocracy because his ass went to PrincetonBrownYale as a legacy kid and he's about to find out that it takes more than knowing every answer in the book to be a good manager out in the real world where results (rightly or wrongly) are expected immediately and everybody is more than just a little bit suspicious of a guy who struts like he invented the game of football but still doesn't have to shave on a daily basis.

**I've had it with all the news "pundits" who scream across the airwaves from their ideological bully pulpit trying to shape public opinion instead of commenting on the news. Whether it be Glenn Beck (Obama is a racist?! Come down to Five Points sometime and try saying that shit out loud) or Keith Olbermann, it's amazing to me just how much modern day TV has become like Paddy Chayevsky's NETWORK--only not quite as tame. Yeah, I'm mad as hell and I don't want to take it anymore.

**Isn't it interesting that now that our increased ground presence in Afghanistan is taking out a new Taliban top honcho almost every week, George Will is leading the conservative brigade to get our troops out of Afghanistan? I must admit though, long term, Afghanistan is unwinnable. Just ask the Russians and Genghis Khan (if he were alive that is.) The sooner we can draw down there, the better it will be for everybody.

That's the notes, I'm a ghost...

Peace.