Hockey, golf and a polygamist cult

This is a quote from this article I just read that just made me laugh:

• An expert on TV said the women in that polygamist cult cover themselves in frontier dresses so that they’re unattractive to other men. I give them credit for succeeding.

• And why would you want to marry even one of them, let alone three or four?

• For that matter, isn’t one wife more than enough for any man?

• I got my own wife’s permission to print the above sentence — what, you think I’d say that without clearance?

Being a hockey fan I enjoyed this one:

• I would watch more golf if, as in hockey, checking was allowed.

These are from Providence Journal's columnist Mark Patinkin. I recently became a fan of his and I enjoy his wit and wisdoms. Keep up the good work Mark.


Photo courtesy of Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

Personal Politics

While doing some afternoon channel surfing I came across in interesting news bit on either CNN or MSNBC. It featured a ten year old asking the current Presidential candidates some standard questions about the environment and graded them afterward. McCain and Hillary both took the time to answer the youngsters questions. Barack apparently was a bit busy but the kid got a shot with his wife Michelle which she answered for him.

I didn't think much of it until I came across this article by Providence Journal columnist Mark Patinkin about recent visits by Obama and Clinton before the primary vote this past week. They both spoke at the same venue so it was perhaps a fair comparison. Obama apparently had good organization and had a large and enthusiastic turnout. The downside was that he pretty much gave the staple stump speech and left the state soon after. Hillary in comparison though speaking to a smaller crowd and was a bit disorganized. On the other hand she was apparently a bit more energetic and more personal. She even made a tour of state after which to small state like Rhode Island can be a big deal. Let's face it on a national scale this state is usually a blip on the map.

The connection or question here is Obama becoming sort of "Rock Star" candidate to busy for the little people. "All politics are local" as the old saying goes. Could this be Baracks weak point? In case you missed it Hillary carried the state by a wide margin.

McCain and the New York Times

Ok so this is so last Thursdays news but I'm just getting up to speed here on this one. Thursday the New York Times reported this article about a possible chink in John McCain's armor.I did want to comment on this because of a few bits I've read about this just today. One was from a local newspaper columnist Mark Patinkin from the Providence journal who even thought the New York Times could have done a better job of reporting.

A quote from the Times article states that

"Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity."

and a couple of paragraphs down from that we get..

"even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity."

That my friends is the extent of the evidence of an inappropriate relationship. I fail to see any smoking gun or proof that he had done something wrong. At worst it was some advisor's looking out for their boss.

Another commentary from radio talk show host(WTKK 96.9 Boston) Michael Graham compared them to a high school newspaper or should I say reporting not worthy of a high school paper. Their is only the innuendo of wrong doing rather that hard facts. The rest of the story goes on to give us a history of John McCain without any more supporting evidence.

Mark Patinkin's column takes an example from the story of Woodward and Bernstein's book(which I'm in the process of reading) "All the President's Men" when both reporters submit a story to their editor Ben Bradlee. Bradlee then looks over there work and says “You haven’t got it.”. Maybe similar judgment should have been used in this case.

I am proud of my country

“For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country, because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.” These were spoken by Michelle Obama recently and apparently she got into a little hot water over it. Though it'll probably just be a blip on what's turning out to be the Obama Express. Of course it was a hot topic on talk shows I heard like Laura Ingraham I heard last night on the way home from work. Of course Obama's people tried to put a spin on it that she meant to say something else. Pretty obvious they were in damage control mode.
I did come across this article from local columnist Mark Patinkin of the Providence Journal. I thought it put into perspective of how unique our country is compared to other countries of the world. I just wanted to share that article because I think many of us take for granted many of the simple things that make our country great.