cynicschism

       Tomorrow all the talk and predictions will end, and the game will be played, and we’ll see who is the better team.  There is a story  arc for this Super Bowl, just as there always is, and it’s pretty accurate: The long woebegone Cardinals against the dynastic Steelers.  The hot offensive team against the stalwart defensive one.  Newness versus experience. 

       There’s no doubt the Cardinals have been hot throughout the playoffs.  Will this momentum swing the game? Who knows.  The Steelers defense must perform as it has done all year, and find a way to stop the Kurt Warner-Larry Fitzgerald connection.  That will be key.  Most of the Cardinals do not have Super Bowl experience, but Warner does.  Will his veteran abilities be enough to offset the playoff inexperience of most of the team? 

       Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has done well in the playoff round.  His numbers are not overly impressive, but he has performed solidly and got the job done.  Especially important, he has not thrown interceptions in the playoff games, as he was prone to do during the regular season.  If he can remain cool that will be a big advantage for Pittsburgh.  There is also the question of WR Hines Ward’s injury.  He sprained a knee ligament in the first quarter of the AFC Championship game against the Baltimore Ravens.  He has had two week to rest, and Ward says he will definitely play in the Super Bowl.  The big question is, at what level?  Is he 100%, or much less?  A truly effective Ward will go a long way to help the Steelers.  A final piece of the Steelers’ puzzle is running back Fast Willie Parker.  He had a tough game against the high-ranked defense of the Ravens, but should do better against the weaker Cardinals’ defense.  The Steelers depend on the run, and if Parker is in good form, the run will work.

       It appears most folks are favoring the Steelers by around a touchdown.  That seems about right, but we’ll find out Sunday night.  If the Pittsburgh defense can clamp down on the Cardinals, and prevent a lot of scoring, and if Big Ben is careful with his passing and doesn’t throw interceptions, the Steelers should win.  We’ll know for sure tomorrow night, starting around 6 o’clock on the NBC network.  Go Steelers.

       President Obama was correct to start the process of having some kind of trial system for the detainees currently being held at the Guantanamo Naval Base.  Holding people, no matter what their exact legal status, without any kind of trial for such a long period of time, is simply wrong.  And some of the detainees have been held  for nearly seven years.  It is long past due for them to be afforded the opportunity to have their day in court. 

       This will probably result in a long judicial process, which is just as well.  There must be two important outcomes of whatever type of process is undertaken:  They must carefully weigh all the relevant evidence in a fair way, and make sure that none of the suspected terrorists are let go before such an examination has occurred, and they are found not guilty.  This will both assure there are fair proceedings, and that the country is protected.

       The United States likes to present itself  as a country that is always goes the extra mile in matters of justice.  By giving the Guantanamo detainees fair trials, it can both live up to this ideal, and gain some rare good publicity in the international community, making the closing of Guantanamo a win-win for the U.S. 

       The easiest way to describe the 1959 film Odds Against Tomorrow is that it is one in a long line of distinguished movies in the bank-heist genre. The plots all follow a similar line: A group of disparate characters plan to rob a bank and then…something always seems to go wrong.

       In the case of Odds Against Tomorrow, there are three people in on the heist:  An ex-cop (Ed Begley) who is just getting by in forced retirement, a racist ex-con (Robert Ryan) who is drifting about, and a jazz musician (Harry Belafonte) who has a gambling problem and owes his bookies big time.  All need a lot of dough and the quicker, the better.

     And just as you suspect things might go wrong, you know there will be one mastermind, who will try hard to keep the others in the gang from screwing things up.  In this case, the ex-cop is the man with the plan, the person who has come with the idea, scouted a location, timed when things happen at the bank, and then lets the others in on the plan.  While most of the action takes place in New York City, the last third of the film is located in a small town in upstate New York. The big-city ex-cop figures if the gang travels upstate to a small-town with a small police force, but with a local bank that has lots of payroll money on a certain day, things should go fine.  So the three head to the small town to do their thing.

       As expected, the ex-cop is kept busy trying to keep the racist and the black jazz musician from going after each other and concentrating on doing the bank robbery.  After waiting nervously for the moment to come, they get into the bank, hold guns on the employees still there after closing time, and proceed, as bank robbers are wont to do, putting the money into satchels Things seem to be going according to plan. They always do.  The ex-cop is the first one out the side door with his satchel. And just at that moment, by chance, a prowl car stops to talk with a citizen on the street corner, and notices the ex-cop walking away from the bank with a satchel. The policeman calls halt, draws a gun and starts shooting. The mastermind fires back, as his two accomplices try to escape to the car parked on a side street.  But, the mastermind has the car keys, and he’s been hit by the cop and is fading fast. He tries to toss the car keys to his two accomplished but can’t. Realizing he’s trapped, he points the gun at his head and shoots himself.

       The two accomplices, who never liked each other, decide to turn on one another with guns drawn.  One chases after  the other with the police in pursuit.  Not to give the ending away, but the final scenes tip a hat to the gangster classic White Heat.

       All three leads are perfect for their parts. Character actor Ed Begley plays a role he has done well with before, the little everyday man with big plans. Robert Ryan is truly menancing as the racist ex-con, who truly looks like he could go off at any minute.  And Harry Belafonte is good as the jazz cat with a gambling jones.  Shelley Winters and the always lovely Gloria Grahame are excellent in supporting roles as Ryan’s girlfriend and as a se-ductive neighbor who would like to get him in trouble.  Wayne Rogers, later of M*A*S*H,  plays a GI who loses a bar fight to the ex-con.

       Director Robert Wise keeps the pace up throughout the 95 minute picture.  The trip upstate and the robbery of the bank show a steady hand and an eye for the unusual, as does the whole picture.  Even though anyone who has seen other heist movies will probably guess that things will not turn out well,  this film will still keep you interested.  The moral of the story?  Maybe it’s this simple: No matter how carefully everything is planned in life, there is always a randon event to mess everything up, like a cop car that stops by chance and unravels the whole plot.  Life’s a bitch.  Especially for movie bank robbers.

       In the run up to the current election, wingnuts of all stripes were predicting quick disaster for the United States if Barack Obama was elected president.  We would be lucky to still be existing on January 21, 2009.   All types of bad things were predicted by these nutters.  Obama would move the total population of Kenya to the United States ASAP.  He was a secret Islamic terrorist who would institute sharia law and build a mosque in every town in the country, and then force everybody to bow down to Allah.  Or he would head a move by the Chicago mafia to new headquarters in D.C. to carry on their nefarious business.  Sound pretty crazy?  To anyone with an ounce of common sense, yes.  To the right-wing nutters who wouldn’t know a fact if it bit them in the behind, no.  They spread this stuff around the net day after day, and, sad to say, some folks actually fell for it.

      Much to the wingnuts’ chagrin, nothing close to their overwrought  pre-election rhetoric occurred. It was just the usual changing of the guard, as easy as always.  Of course, just because all their idiotic warnings never came to fruition, doesn’t mean they have learned any lessons.  They’ll be around for the next four years, making similar nutty predictions as they have before, and they will be found to be just as ridiculous as before, and the country will just keep moving ahead without them.

       The Pittsburgh Steelers came out winners of the AFC Championship game on Sunday night, beating the Baltimore Ravens 23-14.  Like their two regular season games, this one was a close defensive match with the score close until the last few minutes of the game.  With a little over four minutes left in the fourth quarter, and the Steelers leading by only two points,16-14, the Ravens looked like they might drive down the field and take the lead. That’s when the Pittsburgh D stepped up, like it has done all season long, and made a defensive touchdown.  Troy Palamalu intercepted Ravens’ QB Joe Flacco’s pass and ran it back forty yards for a touchdown, making the score 23-14 after the PA, with four minutes left.  The Ravens had another shot at a score, but Flacco threw another interception and that was it-the Steelers ran the clock out and won the AFC Championship.

       For all the threats and trash-talking prior to the game, there didn’t seem to be much fighting on the field, just the usual back and forth of any game.  The biggest hit delivered was the one on Willis McGahee by Brian Clark in the fourth quarter.  McGahee was to be taken off the field on a stretcher, suffering from neck problems.  Everybody hopes the injury will be minor and that he will be back playing next season.  No one wants to see this happen to any player.  Ravens’ QB Joe Flacco, who had looked so good in the first two playoff games had problems when he ran up against the Steelers’ defense.  They kept him contained and forced three interceptions.  Flacco’s rookie inexperience finally showed.  Even the Ravens’ two touchdowns were set up by Steelers’ penalties. 

       Ben Roethlisberger played much as he did lst week against San Diego. He had good protection and was careful in his passing.  He showed amazing ability to scramble out of the pocket and still make accurate throws.  Again, he helped himself by not throwing a single interception. All in all, Big Ben, though his numbers were not that impressive, turned in a good, solid performance.  Willie Parker, who ran for 146 yards last week against the Chargers, did not do very well against the Ravens, running for only 50 yards or so.  The Ravens’ have a good run defense, and Willie did little more than keep the Baltimore defense honest.  Against a less solid D, Willie might put up much better numbers.

       The Steelers also lifted the curse of playing at home in the AFC Championship game.  They have not done well at home in that game, losing twice to New England in the early 2000’s.  But this time they won, also proving they can beat a team three times in one season. 

       While the game was a great defensive matchup, there was a lot less vitriol displayed on the field than the buildup might have led one to expect, which is just as well.  Two great defenses met, and the better one won. It will be time to look at the Super Bowl matchup a little later.  It is still two weeks away.  Now is the time to celebrate the Steelers’ championship victory and raise a glass to the men in the black and gold.  Go Steelers.

     The AFC Championship game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens is fast approaching.  It will be played tomorrow, starting at 6:30, at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.  Everyone is expecting a tight defensive struggle with lots of trash-talking and big hits on both sides, a real grind-em-out matchup.  Both defenses are ranked at the top of the league.  And both teams hate the other.

       The Steelers have recently had trouble at home when playing for the AFC championship.  In the road to their last Super Bowl win in 2006, the Steelers played all their playoff games away from home.  During the early 2000’s they had two tough losses at home in the AFC Championship game. But, as the coaches like to say, that’s all history, and the only thing that matters is today’s game.

       One advantage the Steelers have, besides home field, is that they are in better physical shape than the Ravens.  Quite a few Ravens’ players got beat up in their game against the Titans, and some are still hurting.  In contrast, the Steelers are healthy.  They certainly looked so in their game against the Chargers.  Big Ben looked fine, and not at all troubled by the concussion he suffered.  Fast Willie Parker also looked to be back in his old form, running for 146 yards, a season high.  But the Ravens have a much better defense than the Chargers, and they will no doubt be focusing on Parker and probably head-hunting for Roethlisberger.  The Pittsburgh offensive line has to play as well as they did last week, and give Big Ben plenty of protection and time to throw.  That will be key for the Steelers.

       The Steelers won both regular season games against their divisional rivals Baltimore, but both by close scores.  Tomorrow’s game will most likely be similar, and hopefully the outcome will be the same-a Steelers’ victory.  But it will be a hard-fought one for sure.  It certainly looks to be a great smashmouth contest.  Hines Ward was voted by Ravens’ fans as the most disliked player from another team playing in Baltimore this year.  The Ravens’ players don’t like him either, especially for his smile after he delivers a hard hit or makes a big play.  But Hines is always smiling.  At the end of this game, hope he has an extra big one on his face.  Go Steelers.

       The last Cabinet meeting, the final news conference.  Sure looks like Bushie is finally getting ready to leave Washington.  And none too soon. After eight mostley bad years, most folks will be relieved to wave goodbye to this master of disaster.

       Even during his last press conference, Dumbya had a hard time admitting any mistakes.  The ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner was one he fessed up to.  Not the idiocy of starting a war in which 4,000 Americans were killed, just the banner itself.  Typical Bushie.  Yes, he finally admitted that no weapons of mass or any other kind of destruction turned up.  If that’s the case, why go to war with Hussein at all, since he posed no real threat to the U.S.?  Oh well, logic was never his strong point either.  Guess those smoking gun mushroom clouds were just a slight delusion.  Whoops.

       The thing that Bushie always brags about is that no terrorist attack on the U.S. has occured on his watch since 9/11.  True enough.  Of course that elides over the fact that it was on his watch that one of the most destructive attacks on the U.S. happened.  Sometimes it works, if you don’t bother to think too much about it.

       What is the last hope of a very unpopular president?  Why, that old favorite the ‘historical legacy.’  The belief that in the future, historians will judge a president, in this case Bushie, much more favorably than he is now being judged.  If one can’t win in the present, maybe the future will be kinder. One of the favorite examples is Harry Truman.  Very unpopular when he left office in 1953, now considered one of the better presidents of the 20th centruy, with his down-to-earth simplicity as a bonus.  That’s what Dumbya in his secret heart of hearts is probably hoping for.  The hugely unpopular bumbler in affairs domestic and foreign of today will, maybe twenty or thirty years down the road, turn into a solid, unwavering hero who saved the country from terrorists.   That’s the dream.  On the other hand, there’s the Herbert Hoover story.  Hoover was damn unpopular too, after presiding over the beginning of the Great Depression, and being defeated by FDR in 1932.  Hoover did do many worthwhile things after he left the presidency, but he is still considered a failure in that office.  Now, consider Dumbya.  Consider Truman and Hoover.  Now, which one is it most likely to have his fate repeated in Bushie’s future.   We won’t know for a while, but the smart folks will put thier money on Hoover/Bush, and expect a big payoff.  Bye bye Dumbya.  Good riddance to bad Rubbush.

       Last night the San Diego Chargers met the Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field in the Division playoff game.  There was a special guest at the game: The Pittsburgh Steelers offense showed up and scored 35 points, and went on to beat the Chargers 35 to 24.  The good old Steelers finally came through and looked better than they have in most games this season.  For this night at least, the old Steelers were back in control.

       As they have been all throughout the season, the Steelers D was superb, but the return of the offense was especially exciting.  Ben Roethlisberger threw for two touchdowns, and more importantly had no interceptions, something he has had problems with during the season.  In addition to Roethlisberger, Fast Willie Parker also returned to form, running for 146 yeards, one of his best games this year.  And the offensive line provided excellent protection for Big Ben, allowing only one sack, and giving Ben plenty of time to find his receivers.  That’s a big change from many of the games this year, when  Ben was often scrambling for his life.  The offense made its best showing in this game, doing everything it was called upon to do.

       The Steelers D, which is the number one defense in the NFl, lived up to expectations.  It held Chargers’ running back Darren Sproul to only 15 yards on 10 carries.  Sproul made some big receptions and runbacks, but on individual runs, he went nowhere fast.

       Now that the Steelers have beaten San Diego, it’s on to the AFC Championship game, this Sunday evening against the Baltimore Ravens. There is quite a bitter rivlary between the two teams, so this game will be a particurlarly hard fought one.  The Ravens have a better defense than the Chargers, so the Steelers offense will have to play as efficiently as they did against San Diego.  If Ben is the same form as in the Chargers’ game, and if Willie Parker runs like he just did, the Steelers have a good chance of beating Baltimore, but it will be tough.  Looking forward to that game.  Congratulations to Pittsburgh for its victory against San Diego and go luck in the upcoming match against Baltimore.  Go Steelers.

       The San Diego Chargers travel to Heinz Field in Pittsburgh to play the Steelers in a divisional playoff game this Sunday. Kickoff is at 4:45  p.m. est.  Should be an interesting game.  The Steelers have the top defense in the NFL.  The Chargers have running back Darren Sproles, who gained more than 300 all-purpose yards last week against the Colts.  Can the Steel Curtain stop Sproles or will the height-challenged back somehow get around it?  It will be an interesting match-up.  If the Steelers cannot stop Sproles, it might be a long day for Pittsburgh.  Congratulations to James Harrison, Steelers’ linebacker, who was voted the AP Defensive Player of the Year.  This is the first time a Steeler has won this title since 1993, when CB Rod Woodson won it.  Way to go, JH.

       After the question of whether the Pittsburgh D can stop Sproles is the question of Ben Roethlisberger’s health and that of the  Steelers’ offense in general.  Big Ben suffered a concussion in the last game of the season against the Cleveland Browns.  His recovery appears to be slow, and there is a question of how healthy he will be on game day.  Backup QB Byron Leftwich is a solid player, but will he be able to post a win if he has to take over for Big Ben?  And then there is the whole question of the Steelers’ offense.  It is rated under the average for NFL teams and has had trouble scoring in a consistent manner this year.  The defense has saved many a game, and the offense will have to step up if the Steelers want to get to the Super Bowl.  One troubling stastistic: Last year Big Ben threw 31 TD’s and only 11 INT’s, very effective.  This year those numbers are 17 TD’s and 15 INT’s, very worrying.  That may be the key to the Charger game.  The Steelers’ offense will have to play better than they usually have done this season.

       There is a chance the weather might be bad and this might help the Steelers.  And no matter what the statistics say about the lack of home field advantage, I’m glad the Steelers will be at home.  They need all the help they can get.  I’m also glad they’re playing the Chargers instead of the Ravens.  The  Steelers should be able to beat the Chargers tomorrow, if most goes right for Pittsburgh.  But there’s only one way to find out, and that’s to play the game.  Go Steelers.

       The ZE, aka Israel, is on the march in Gaza.  As usual, the Israelis teased folks for a while with talk of a cease-fire, though anyone with experience of the way the ZE operates knew they were just playing, and that they’d be going in for the kill pretty soon.  Already, the poor beleagured, valiant nation of Israel has managed a kill ratio of 100 to 1.  For every Zionist killed, the IDF has managed to kill 100 Palestinians.  How humane of them.  What can anyone feel but pity for their plight.  Poor murdering things.

       When one looks at the huge Israeli superiority in all forms of military force and technology, one might ask what the Zionists are so worried about.  Why do they respond with overwhelming force anytime rockets fall ,with little damage, on their territory?  It’s very simple really.  It has nothing to do with strategy.  They do it because they can, and because they don’t have the basic morality to stop slaughtering people who get in their way.  As always, the Zionists like to show the world what thorough thugs they are.

       What is the reaction of the U.S. to every Zionist onslaught?  A few mumbled words about peace, and total support of whatever the Israelis do. That’s because the U.S. has been in the bag for the Israelis for a very long time.  Whatever atrocities the Zionists commit are just fine with their American brothers.  That in itself should not be surprising.  The Zionists are just a mini-me reflection of their bigger American imperialist mentors.  Mindless military aggression is their favorite hobby, death-dealing their tightest bond.

       But, after all the death and destruction the Zionists hand out to the Palestinians, will they achieve their goal of crippling Hamas?  Not likely.  A similar gambit was tried against the resistance group Hezbollah in the summer of 2006.  The Israelis invaded southern Lebanon, hoping to undermine and weaken Hezbollah.  All the invasion did, besides the usual death and destruction, was give the Zionists a black eye and strenghten Hezbollah recruiting.  Back from their month long fiasco, the Zionists came home with little to show for their depredations.  The same is likely to happen in Gaza.  Though the topography is different from that of Lebanon, the results will be similar.  The Israelis will get a bad rap as they kill even more civilians, including children, Hamas will have a strong recruiting tool, there will be a short-term peace, and then, in a year or two, the Hamas rockets will start falling again on the piratical, land-stealing Zionists.  And the U.S., so busy trying to win approval in the Arab world, will share in the bad blood generated by the Israelis.  All in all, it looks like a lose-lose for both the Israelis and their imperial partners, the U.S.  Which is a win-win for the rest of the world.