Thoughts for Today

Yesterday morning I pulled off the Garden State Parkway in south Jersey to pick up my usual Burger King breakfast before heading out to the golf course. There in the parking lot, occupying the first two spaces, stood a white Mercedez-Benz. I wanted to wait for the driver so I could ask him or her if they believed driving a $50,000 car entitled them to two parking spaces. (What I really wanted to do was take my car keys and leave my signature of disapproval down the sides of this moron's vehicle.) In case you hadn't guessed from past rants, people who act like they're better than the rest of us bring out the wild-eyed lunatic in me.

Election results are in. Mike Bloomberg, after spending the equivalent of Bolivia's GNP on his reelection campaign, wins narrowly over Democrat William Thompson in the NYC mayoral election. I think I have more face recognition than Thompson, a guy with zero buzz. I think the Dems were shocked to see how even this bland non-entity almost beat the mighty Bloomberg. They had probably conceded that Bloomberg was unbeatable, but oh how wrong they were. People were P.O.'d over his overturning the term limits law, and it showed. If the Dems had run any kind of viable candidate, they'd be sitting in City Hall this morning.

Republicans won some big gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey. It shows to some extent that the charasmatic Obama is not invulnerable. He campaigned mightily in New Jersey for Jon Corzine, but to no avail...even a shady character like Chris Christie beat him. The message is clear: the people will not be snake-charmed (well, not always anyhow). Corzine's administration was beset by corruption scandals that rocked voters, even in New Jersey, a more corrupt state than New York, and that's saying something. New Jerseans also pay the highest taxes in the nation, not exactly a campaign slogan for the incumbent. When Corzine ran in the last election, he recorded an ad that said: "New Jersey, hold me accountable". Well they did, Jon, they did.

The Yankees play tonight for their 27th World Series. A.J. Burnett, the guy who refuses to pitch to the team catcher Jorge Posada, but insists on throwing to his preferred catcher, the light hitting Jose Molina, flat out sucked in game 5. I'm tired of all these prima donna pitchers whining about pitching on three days rest. Suck it up pretty boy and extend yourself for the team that pays you millions to play a boy's game. I wonder how far we'd get calling in to work on a Tuesday and saying we couldn't possibly come in until Friday at the earliest! Puh-leeeze.

Jesse Ventura, ex-WWF wrestler and ex-Governor of Minnesota (there's a sentence we never thought we'd ever see) was on Larry King last night and said a profound thing, something he rarely does. An election analyst was talking about how the Republican gains might cause moderate Democrats to reconsider their position on health care for fear they would see the same voter backlash at the polls. Jesse said: "Notice how they don't care what their constituents want, or what's the right thing to do, they only care about what they need to do to get reelected". Bulls eye Jesse, you have defined the thought process of the career politician in a single sentence.

I see in today's Daily News that another incident of road rage resulted in a Brooklyn driver being shot to death. Yesterday on Staten Island a man was arrested for taking a baseball bat to the other guy in a minor fender bender. What the hell are we be becoming! If somebody cuts in front of you, honk or even flip him the bird if it really makes you feel better, but for crying out loud, holster the Glock. Traffic disputes have been going on for as long as I'm driving, but the manner of resolving them has grown very nasty. My wife is always telling me I'm going to get shot one of these days. Maybe I'd better start listening.

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