NASCAR is stupid

First off, congrats to Jimmie Johnson for winning the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas yesterday. Somehow his crew chief extraordinaire Chad Knaus managed to find a way to make Johnson's car faster on four old tires than everyone else's was on new tires.

One of the announcers mentioned that either the guys had been holding back or Knaus has found something late in the season, because Johnson's been a stud the last couple of races. Within striking distance of first place in the Chase, it doesn't seem quite as far fetched now to think of a six consecutive title for the Hendrick juggernaut.

Anyway, the point of this post is more about NASCAR fooling around with the rules again.

When NASCAR went to the safer car design, one thing they implimented was a new front splitter/raised rear spoiler combo as is used in the Truck Series. One of the reasons was to increase the pack racing that is so common in that series by mimicing the aero performance of the vehicles.

After a bunch of horrific crashes where it was found that the raised rear spoiler acted as a wing to lift spinning cars off the track, NASCAR went back to a traditional rear spoiler and front air damn configuration.

With the other aero effects on the new cars, what was wrought was a phenomenom never seen in the sport before. At superspeedway tracks like Talladega and Daytona, something the announcers joyfully dubbed the "two car tango" was created -- two cars running bumper-to-bumper were sometimes as much as 10 mph faster than single cars or the multi-car freight trains of years past.

This led to a fan friendly situation where two guys could hook up almost a lap down and run down the leaders. Teams added inter car communications so drivers could make deals with one another during the race. Allegiances were made and broken during a race. You couldn't count anyone out of the race because with the right pusher -- and some guys worked better as pushers than leaders -- anyone could get up front. The only draw back was that the rear car might overheat from the lack of airflow, so a graceful method of swapping positions was born as well.

It was great television.

And of course, NASCAR hated it.

Because there wasn't enough wrecks. Because NASCAR likes wrecks because they make good visual bites for advertising.

So . . .

For Talladega, NASCAR has mandated some rule changes -- they've increased the sizes of the holes in the restrictor plates and changed the pressure value on the radiator pop-offs. Their stated purpose for these changes is to eliminate the two-car effect by increasing horsepower and limiting the time the vehicles can ride behind another without overheating. In essence, they want a return of the large pack racing of the past -- where as many as twenty cars are tightly packed, unable to break away from one another just zooming around the track as an accident waiting to happen.

Add to this Talladega's recent announcement -- they are offering $100k to the driver who takes the lead most often if the total lead changes is over 100. The record is in the eighties and was set by the . . . two-car tango effect so reviled by NASCAR officials.

So putting this all together -- we have NASCAR forcing the cars back into a dangerously tight pack of vehicles travelling at over 200 mph, and we have the track officials hoping to force risk taking and, in their own words, entertaining and exciting driving by throwing what amounts to a couple of sets of tires at the drivers.

It's a recipe for disaster and I hope no one is seriously injured because of this stupidity.

Rule 5 Sunday -- 'cause I'm feeling old

Today's Rule 5 posting is a selection of black & white images that are a bit retro. It's been a long crappy week, and I'm feeling my age more than other days. Plus I'm always loving me some retro/oldies goodness, So . . .

Some of these may not qualify technically as oldies depending on how old you are, but they are at least 20 years old.

*click on the thumbnails for full-sized images*

Rule 5 Sunday suggested by this.

Hat tips:
Jake Finnegan
The Daley Gator
The Classic Liberal
Say Anything Blog
Proof Positive

A bit early, isn't it?

So I'm delivering mail on my route yesterday. And as I pass one of my customer's houses, I notice her car in the driveway. On the bumper, placed perfectly in the middle, is an Obama 2012 bumper sticker.

Already?

I mean, we haven't even started the campaign, officially, yet. We don't even know who the Republicans are going to run against the President yet. The left wing's preferred candidate, Mitt Romney, is still the front runner. With the other entrants still moving up and down according to polls and media attacks on them.

So my customer is obviously going on ideology or pure party allegiance. At least that's what I'm assuming. Because what exactly would she be so contented with from the current administration? Double dip recession? Underemployment near 16%? Poverty level the highest its been in years? Our decreased standing as a global power?

What has this president done that would make someone just blindly support four more years of his administration? The left's talking heads, useful idiots, and water carriers like to snark that conservatives are stupid and allow themselves to be told whom to vote for.

But who really has the blinders on? Who is truly living in a state of denial here? In fact, if you talk to a democrat/liberal about the upcoming vote, they all begin to roll out the usual ad hominem attacks, outright lies and deceptions about conservatives in general that the media has been spreading for the last eight years. Those who vote democrat aren't actually looking at the issues and the world and what's happening in our own country and making an informed decision. They're simply voting as they are told to vote. By the media and other propaganda-meisters.

This is one election where it would make me more comfortable to see yard signs and bumper stickers only popping up at the late stages of the campaign. Blind partisanship coupled with uninformed decisionmaking and knee-jerk issue reactionisms could have disastrous consequences in 2012.

Use your freekin' heads! Don't get all your news or info from one source! Know who's behind the various media outlets you are trusting! Take advantage of the incredible amounts of information literally at your fingertips via the internet, but remember -- search engines have agendas too!

Don't f*ck it up this time, folks! There's too much at stake in this election to be voting on guilt or to be trendy.

Late night hotness . . .

A penny for your thoughts . . .

And the Rays are gone

Today's 4-3 loss to the Rangers knocks the Rays out of the post season.

After starting out with a surprising 9-0 win behind call-up phenom Matt Moore, Tampa Bay got the broomage from the Rangers. Sadly, I sort of predicted this way back in the beginning of the season, when I pointed out that the team wasn't going to get through the playoffs relying solely on shut-out pitching performances.

Staff stars James Shields and David Price both melted down when the team needed them after pitching their asses off all season. Price, who is oh for September/October had a Beckett-like fail last night as he had 5 scoreless innings before the wheels came off. Ditto for Shields the night before.

Today it was Hellickson who gave up two solo shots to Adrian Beltre before leaving the game. Desperate for anything, Maddon went to Moore hoping for more magic like the first game. But Moore gave up a homer to Beltre as well, and that was pretty much the game.

With the Rays anemic bats, it is beyond unfair to put such a burden on the pitchers. Imagine what a team like the Yankees or Red Sox could do with a rotation like the Rays have? They'd be destroying the league and setting records for wins and runs that would have everyone going around with their mouths hanging open.

Alas, with the miniscule payroll here, the Rays are built only to make the wild card game each season. Especially with talk of expanding the playoffs next year.

Hoping to get your foot in the door then have a magical run every year is no way to run a team. And it isn't fair to the fans or the players who will spend their careers here watching other teams win it all. But unless there's a large influx of cash for this team, I think that is all we're destined for.

Nice try guys.

This just in . . .

Kate Beckinsale throws on some sloppy jeans and a t-shirt to go shopping and ends up looking hotter than 99% of the women in Hollywood or on fashion runways:

Music review -- Chickenfoot III

I should mention first off that I really really wanted to really really like this cd. I came across the first Chickenfoot cd by accident and thought, "Oh this looks interesting" and was totally blown away by it. I turned a bunch of my friends on to it, who loved it as well. So I had this cd on pre-order with Amazon as soon as it became available.

And it arrived via a courier service. So first off -- hey Amazon, wtf?! My PO is good enough to deliver your stinkin' Harry Potter books, but not my Chickenfoot CD? What's up with that?!

Anyway . . .

I do love this cd, but it is different from their debut cd. My impression of the first release for these guys was that Satriani was playing guitar like a guy who had been released from prison and handed a guitar. He put something different on every track, trying all sorts of different sonic flourishes he'd been dying to try for years.

While not a mellow cd at all, it has a "quieter" feel to it. And though I'm not one to try and read a lot into song lyrics, there does seem to be an underlying theme to this cd. Now, Sammy Hagar is a great rock vocalist, but as a lyricist? Well, if you're looking for thought provoking, deep imagery, you might want to pull out some old vinyl from the Moody Blues or Yes, you know?

That said, the first track Last Temptation is a solid rocker about a reformed hellraiser who enters a bar or strip club and finds himself getting those old feelings again. Our guy wrestles with himself, feeling like he's in the Garden of Eden facing the serpent and apple and doesn't want to go there. Again.

Track two Alright Alright is a foot stomper that was initially, and still is, my favorite track on the cd. Chad Smith pounds the sh*t out of a driving beat and Satriani noodles in some great stuff as well as some of his trademark riffs.

Different Devil revists the theme again as we have a guy whose wife might be looking for some "strange" as he puts it. The song is basically a "better the devil you know" story, hence the title I suppose. It sounds like something John Mellencamp would have put out in the eighties, except with infinitely better guitar work (obviously). But the song grows on you and is another of my favorites on the disc.

Up Next is Sammy saying that when his time on this earth is done and he's standing before St. Peter, he's gonna proudly stand with the deeds and foibles of his life, be respectful but unbowed. It's got a defiant chorus and hard driving guitar line.

The next track Lighten Up starts out with a fuzzy keyboard riff then gets its rock on big time. Still noodling around the same theme, this song seems to be about a guy telling his girl to "lighten up" a bit. He notes that she always gets what she wants anyway, and he's under a lot of pressure in his job, so you know . . .

Come closer is a ballad that focuses more on Sammy's vocals. And that isn't a bad thing, he's got the right voice for this kind of song style. It's actually a very beautiful song with Satriani weaving a delicate guitar balance between strums and lead solos. It's a love song, basically, as Sammy tells his girl she's the kind of woman he's always needed.

I'm not quite sure what to make of the next track. Three and a Half Letters gets it's name from three short letters Sammy reads during the song. I don't know the background here -- does Sammy have a charitable organization he runs or do people simply send him and the band letters begging for help? The missives point out that homelessness and joblessness are crossing all demographics and people are reaching out for help. The song consists of Sammy reading each letter then a following thumping chorus where he screams about "needing a job." I guess it's his attempt at being topical. I'm not sure of the guy' politics, but maybe he should have addressed the song to the current administration. I don't know.

Big Foot is a straight up rocker that is basically a "I'm comin' to get ya babe" kind of song. He gives a nice shout out to Zep with a Houses of the Holy reference. That always gets points in my book.

Dubai Blues along with the last song on the disc, might be the most perfectly constructed songs on the cd. A lament from an obscenely rich guy who's got everything . . . but he hasn't got the girl. And he can't buy the girl. It's a great song that makes you want to sing along with it.

Track ten, Something going wrong opens like a country tune with strummy guitars, Sammy singing with a twang and a little bit of banjo. Maybe it's the southern boy in me, but a little jangly banjo always gives me goose bumps. Satriani does some great solo work on this song that does rock, but not in such a way that I couldn't imagine this song playing on a country music station. There's a smokiness to his guitar work here, I don't know how else to describe it. It makes me hark back to my college days and Robin Trower and lost weekends. I love it.

There is an unlisted eleveth track, but to be honest, I have no idea what it's about. Sammy's yelling about "them" lying about everyone from Jesus to bin Laden. Who's lying? Why? Truthfully, I cut the cd off before this track gets going because it just doesn't do anything for me. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think so.

Like I said at the beginning, this cd is different from the guy's first release, but it is still a great cd. I do love it, perhaps more so because they simply didn't carbon copy the first one. There's some growth and reach with the songs and their sounds.

Also, I know this is their second release, and I called it "III" in the title because . . . well, everyone is calling it that. I'm assuming it is because of the 3D effects in the disc packaging. Maybe? Personally, I think the guys are just goofing with us. Their first cd package had that temperature sensitive action, where I had to tuck the damn thing under my shirt in winter to read the liner info. This one has lots of 3D images and a little silliness on the disc itself and the package comes with a set of 3D glasses. I just think these guys are having fun with this stuff and it shows in the music. In a good way.

Everyone is still at the top of their games here. Sammy's vocals are solid, and even though he tends to borrow flourishes from earlier in his career, he might be one of the best rock vocalists out there. Michael Anthony may be a solid bass player, but his strength is as a harmonizer. His voice takes the songs beyond simple rock song vocals and turns them into something that has a depth and texture you don't hear with most screamers in the biz.

I enjoy listening to Chad Smith on the drums. I have to wonder how much he enjoys playing with a band that doesn't include wierdos like Anthony Kiedis and Flea leaping around like spazzes all the time. He's got great chops back there and it's nice to be able to finally hear them.

And Joe Satriani . . . 'nuff said.

My recommendation -- buy this freekin' cd!