Happy Memorial Day!

My father served in the Navy in World War II, my son served two tours of Iraq -- one with the Marines and one with the Army. By the grace of God, both returned home alive. I won't say safely, as my father brought home demons from his experiences that he battled for the rest of his days. I can only hope my son is spared those trials in his life.

But a great many other men, and women, did not return home, having given their lives in service to their, and our, country. This day is set aside to honor them and their sacrifice.

So take a moment amidst the races and barbeques and beach goings and such to say thanks to those who gave everything so that we may enjoy the little things in our lives.

Congrats to Tony Kanaan for winning Indy

Tony Kanaan won the Indy 500 today. Tony's one of those feel-good stories, a really decent guy, good driver, etc., who lost his drive at Andretti Green when his car lost its sponsorship a year or two ago. He's been bangin' around trying to stay relevant in the sport ever since.

Kanaan won the race under a yellow flag that had the cars on the last two laps zooming around the track at a whopping 60mph. I'm not a big fan of yellow flag finishes -- they rank with rain stoppages with me as the most undeserving of wins. But everyone's happy for Tony, most likely his son, who they mentioned in an interview was hoping Tony would come back home if he won today. We'll see.

The race itself wasn't too bad. Sadly, I've drifted away from open wheel motorsports of late because of the IROC-ization of IndyCar. The crate motors, single chassis manufacturer, the gimmicky stuff -- push-to-pass, different tires and restrictions on when you can change them, etc.

But IndyCar seems to be learning. The new body design allows for actual drafting (something NASCAR should take note of), and they've allowed Chevy to offer motors as well as allowing at least two different chassis mfgs. So it has opened things up enough that this long time race fan may come back to one of his favorite styles of racing for the balance of the year.

The announcing wasn't too bad. I've mentioned before that I like Eddie Cheever since he seems unafraid to speak his mind even if it isn't politically correct for the sport (see his comments when Dan Wheldon died on the track). They had one noticible bobble during the race as a car wrecked early -- Sebastian Saavedra, he could be heard on his radio saying someone deserved a penalty for what happened. Replays clearly showed another car sliding down the track and hitting Saavedra, spinning him into the wall and putting him out of the race. Despite the announcers saying they would find out what car that was, they never did. Or at least they never announced who it was. Why? Who knows, but it was disappointing to this fan not to get the story.

That's sort of the announcer's job, right?

Anyway, hat tip to Tony and later today is the Coke 600. Hopefully someone other than Jimmie Johnson will win, and I'll end up having a nice holiday weekend.

Congrats to Matt Moore

Congratulations to Rays pitcher Matt Moore who became the first left handed pitcher in over 15 years to start a season 8-0 with a 3-1 victory over the Orioles yesterday.

You've got to hand it to the guys in the Rays scouting department. When it comes to finding stud pitchers, these dudes have got it all figured out. They seem to have an endless stream of hot pitchers coming through the system. I can't think of another team in baseball that seems so pitching rich, at least with their starters, as the Rays.

The Rays 3 game win streak has them tied with Baltimore for third place and four games out of first. The Sox, who won their fifth straight yesterday, are still in second, a half game out -- yay!

But anyway, hat tip to Matt for a pretty nice start to this season. And by the way, here's Miley making a one-piece look pretty good:

Sometimes when I read the paper . . .

Reading the Tampa Bay (formerly the St. Pete) Times can be a brutal experience for a conservative. This Sunday's edition, in the editorial pages at least, was no exception.

One article and one editorial about the horrific threat of climate change set the tone. The first from Edward Renner a professor in the Honors college at USF, starts off with a complete falsehood -- "New measurements show that the climate-changing gas carbon dioxide is at the highest atmospheric concentrations...in at least 3 million years."

A peer reviewed study was released only this year showing that CO2 levels reached as high as 435ppm a mere 12,000 years ago. That's a far cry from 3 million years! At many other times in our geological history, CO2 levels have been as high as 1000ppm and life has gone on, plants and animals have thrived. Studies indicate we are, if anything, in a CO2 drought at the moment.

The Times itself doubles down on this with its usual climate hysteria pointing out a CIA (of all people!) report issuing "...a warning that the acceleration of climate change will spark conflicts and human migration of such magnitude that it will strain the American military."

Seriously?!?!

Setting aside the fact that the CIA isn't exactly an expert on global science, the problem with all this is that we are currently in a period of global cooling right now. In fact, planet temperatures have risen only 4 tenths of a degree celsius since the mid-70's.

In point of fact, there is still no conclusive data to suggest that CO2 has any specific re-radiative properties that would contribute to global warming or the so-called greenhouse effect. In fact, studies show we have experienced ice ages with CO2 levels as high as 2000ppm.

The Times also trots out their favorite scare tactic -- rising oceans. Problem with that is that studies show that the figure used by the IPCC and other climate hysterics is 70% higher than the actual figure. The Journal of Geophysical Research -- Solid Earth finds that the actual figure for estimated sea level rise averaged from 2003 to 2012 is .16mm/yr. Extrapolate that figure out to the year 2100 and you have a sea level rise of 1/2 inch! That's hardly flooding of biblical proportions!

But climate astrologists like those at the Times continue their hysterical claims that we must turn ourselves backward to the days of horse drawn carriages to save the world from some imaginary impending disaster. And despite being proven wrong on every single prediction since Al Gore's faux science has lined his pockets with millions of dollars, the so-called purveyors of truth at the Times continues to publish this nonsense on a daily basis.

Also in the editorial section was a disturbing piece by columnist Robyn Blumner. In the wake of Angelina Jolie's revelation of her double mastectomy to protect herself from what she believed was an 80% chance of breast cancer in the future, Ms. Blumner admits she has had the same thing done.

Ms. Blumner states that in 2011 doctors found a small cancer (technically a "stage zero" DCIS), and though there was no cancer history in her family she went ahead with the procedure because of . . .

"...the single minded obsession Republicans have with repealing the Affordable Care Act."

?!?!

That's right . . . Ms. Blumner mutilated herself over a political difference of opinion! Now last I looked, Ms. Blumner is employed by the paper and probably makes somewhere close to the mid $50's. Are you telling me the Tampa Bay Times doesn't offer health care to its employees?! Where are the articles excoriating them on that? I haven't seen any. And if that's the case, why hasn't Ms. Blumner sought out one of the many personal health care plans that a person of her means could easily afford?

Because Ms. Blumner is a died-in-the-wool nanny state liberal who thinks that your tax dollars should pay for her medical costs even when she could manage them herself. She states that her double mastectomy saves her the future costs of mammograms (which are affordably offered by the baby slaughtering Planned Parenthood last I looked) and saves her from bankruptcy even though she admits the possibility of that is slight.

She closes her article with this insane statement -- "With Republicans in Congress waiting for their opportunity to kill off my medical and financial security, I simply couldn't risk keeping my breasts."

OMG! I simply don't know how to respond to someone so deranged that they do something like this. All I can say is that I pity you Ms. Blumner, I'm sorry you've let a simple political disagreement drive you to self-mutilation and I worry about your mental health in the future. This is the sort of hyper-overreaction to politics or idealogy that drives someone to do what happened in Boston earlier this year. If the sanctity of your own body means so little to you, what might you be capable of should conservatives gain control of Congress and/or the White House in the future? I shudder at the possibilities.

My God! What is wrong with liberals anymore?!

---

And on a lighter note, here's some tree hugging I can actually get behind:

Not only a teacher, but . . .

. . . a budding entrepreneur as well.

Olivia Sprauer, the high school english teacher who was recently fired for having done some fairly racing modeling to pay for her grad school, looks to be capitalizing on her 15 minutes of fame.

Ms. Sprauer, who models under the name of Victoria V. James (the V is for Valentine . . . heh), has acquired a domain name and will soon be launching her own website -- missvictoriajames.com

Given some of the saucy work she's done in her brief career so far, I'm thinking her own site (probably pay or with a member's section) might be pretty interesting:

And these liberal/socialists say capitalism is evil . . . bah!

---

Need more Victoria James hotness? Try these:

It turns out Olivia Sprauer has beenmoonlighting as a saucy model.

Victoria V. James did Hustler after all.

Sox take two of three from the Rays

The Red Sox snatched victory from the jaws of defeat tonight, defeating the Rays 4-3 to stay one game behind the Yankees with a 24-17 record.

In the ninth inning, Boston was down to their last strike, with the bases loaded, and facing last year's out of nowhere phenom closer for the Rays -- Fernando Rodney. Rodney followed up a 100mph fastball with an 85mph change-up to Will Middlebrooks who jumped all over it and sent a line drive double to the wall that cleared the bases and gave the Sox the lead.

Junichi Tazawa who had also pitched a scoreless eighth, finished off the ninth to seal the win.

Situational hitting has been the bane of the Sox in their current sort-of slump. Their RISP has been atrocious, and tonight wasn't much better -- I think they were 2-8 on the night. But they got the clutch hit when it counted, much like last night's huge third inning. This was the idea behind the retooling of this team with so many character players and a manager who is on an even keel. Farrell has refused to panic and make wholesale changes to his line-up when they were struggling to manufacture runs. These last two games are the payoff I think.

It was nice to see a well played series between these two teams without all the acrimony that went on last season and some of the ones before. With any luck, I can watch these guys play each other the rest of the season and be able to enjoy some good baseball. I'll hope the Sox win, but unless Boston's going for a playoff spot, I won't cry if the Rays come out on top.

fingers crossed

Looks like someone's lost a few pounds

Christina Aguilera posted of pic of herself on Twitter the other day, showing off her somewhat more slender physique:

Christina's taken a lot of grief for her weight gain over the last few years. If this is a sign that she's finally getting some control over herself and her life -- more power to her. She may not look like this again any time soon:

But she's still got some of the best pipes in the business. It would be nice to see her doing well again.

Sox get a much needed win

Mired in a ghastly slump, losing 9 of their last 11, the Red Sox got a solid 9-2 victory over the Rays last night.

A huge third inning where the guys batted around was capped by a grand slam by Stephen Drew. They didn't get much else going offensively until the eighth when Will Middlebrooks got a solo homer. The announcers were going on about just that, the hitting being held in check for most of the game. But that's the way games go. Had the Rays put together a monster inning like that, the announcers would have been lauding how they did what they had to to win.

Sort of forgotten in all this is another fine performance by Jon Lester who is undefeated in his first nine starts this season. 6-0 with an ERA in the mid-two's, Lester is now number five all-time on the Sox strikeout list.

After last night's heartbreaking 5-3 loss, due mostly because Mike Napoli couldn't judge a high pop-up against the Trop's odd ceiling, the win keeps the Sox at just two games behind the Yankees, who are still winning despite half their team being on the DL. Wild!

Anyway, tonight's game has Clay Buchholz going for his 7th win. So hopefully we'll get a series sweep here with some good hitting and more excellent starting pitching. Correction: it appears Felix Doubront has the start, not Buccholz. I'm not nuts about this as Doubront's been a bit of a disappointment this season coming into camp out of shape and not delivering on the mound. Hopefully he'll have his A-game back after a stint in the minors.

Also of note -- David Price left the game in the third inning with (airquote)triceps tightness(/airquote). Last year's Cy Young winner has struggled mightily this season with lack of command and an obvious loss of velocity. Reports surfaced yesterday that Price is suffering from an allergic reaction to the chemicals used in the clubhouse for cleaning. Saying he can't see, and has been using eye drops, etc. Funny how we're just hearing that now. Even the guys on Baseball Tonight last night were going on about Price belly-aching about not getting strikes. Won't be surprised to see Price go on the 15-day DL for his arm but more accurately for him to get his head together.

So this is what happens when we underpay our teachers

They have to augment their meager salaries with some saucy modeling jobs:

It's the fault of those damn vouchers, I tell ya! The liberals were right all along!

On the one hand, I feel sorry for Ms. Sprauer for losing her job as English teacher at Martin County High School in Florida. It's a bit prudish on the part of the school to hyperventilate over something so benign. Ms. Sprauer is a young grad student presumably working hard as a teacher and moonlighting as a model to pay for the remainder of her college education.

On the other hand, in this day and age, it's a bit naive of Ms. Sprauer to imagine that after plastering saucy images of herself on her Facebook page, even under the professional name of Victoria V. James, she wouldn't eventually be recognized. High school age boys are little hormone machines. They're already fantasizing about their teachers, especially if they are even remotely attractive. And these kids spend all day on their computers and cell phones, browsing their various social networks. Just a matter of time before some hard breathing boy recognized this full-figured beauty:

Then of course, he shows the picture to his girlfriend who probably ratted the hot teacher out to the principal out of typical teenage girl jealousy.

'Cause girls are like that

---

Need more Victoria James hotness? Try these:

Victoria V. James has her own website now.

Victoria James did Hustler after all.

Helen Mirren got back

Yeah . . . the pic below is 67 year old(!) Helen Mirren rockin' the hell out of a pair of tight jeans:

That's just crazy! She is so the December to my May :-)

Letter Carrier's Food Drive

This Saturday, May 11th, is the 21st annual USPS Letter Carriers' food drive. This is the largest single day food drive in the country. Last year, USPS carriers collected over 70 million pounds of food, that was then distributed to food banks around the country.

With the day rapidly approaching, I'd like to offer a few tips to those who are inclined to donate to this worthy cause:

1. First off, please don't leave your donations out prior to Saturday if you can at all help it. Most stations do not have the storage space to keep all these donations for an extended period of time, we're pretty cramped in our offices. It's the reason we do this on a single day -- the logistics of this massive collection of goods works better if we can quickly turn the stuff around and get it out.

2. Dude, please . . . not that bulging, rusted, 15 year old can of creamed corn! Seriously folks, the stuff we are collecting is supposed to feed the hungry, not empty out your pantry. Have a heart! No expired goods, please. And non perishible too! No yogurt, quarts of milk, eggs, cheese slices, ice cream, etc. -- they should be items that can be stored on shelves at the food banks unrefrigerated.

3. Avoid glass containers if at all possible. I know it's tempting to toss a couple of jars of spaghetti sauce in there, but we're piling up bags of stuff in the backs of our trucks. And when we off-load, we're filling huge containers with all the collected goods. Those glass jars break more easily than you'd imagine, then you've got a mess plus a safety hazard with all the broken glass. Try to keep it to boxes, cans, and plastic jars whenever possible.

4. I know you're loving those cultured quail's eggs in artisan mustard sauce and want to share it with those less fortunate, but for the same amount of money, you probably could have purchased a case of beef-o-ghetti -- which would be much better for the cause in the long run. Remember -- this stuff is for food banks to distribute to the homeless and unfortunates that are struggling to find something to eat every day. Ravioli, Hungry Man soups, mac & cheese, canned veggies . . . simple, quickly prepared edible stuff is the way to go. And with most groceries running BOGO's these days, you can grab a couple of cans when you do your shopping and it won't set you back much.

Thanks in advance to everyone who pitches in this Saturday. I'll update this post with the collection totals as soon as they come in.

Well, hello there Vanessa Hudgens' undies

Vanessa Hudgens is pretty much always rockin' the groovy hippy look, and I like that about her. But sometimes, them sloppy floppy outfits just don't get the job done, from a covering things up standpoint that is:

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Or should I say ¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!?

Been way too long since I took any spanish in school. Our area down here has more of a Cuban heritage than a Mexican one, so I don't have any germane anecdotes to share.

Anyway, get your fiesta on and have fun today!

Tale of two scandals

Down here in Raysland, UmpGate is winding down . . . sort of. If you haven't been following it -- the other day the Rays were playing the White Sox. Reigning AL Cy Young winner David Price, who has been struggling with a 5 game winless streak, was battling to finally get off the schneid.

Looking agitated on the mound, Price didn't get the punch out he wanted in the sixth inning but got a ground out instead. On his way off the mound, passing by the home plate umpire, Price heard Tom Hallion say something. And that's where we get the he said, he said moment.

Price says Hallion swore at him. Hallion says he only said "Just throw the ball over the plate." Price heard the f-word in there. Hallion called Price a liar for saying he cursed at him. The Rays bench erupted, players flocked to Twitter to vent, implying Hallion was a "coward," a "liar," needed "accountability," etc.

MLB handed down some puny fines -- $1000 each to several players and Hallion, and hoped that would settle it.

Here's my thing -- we all curse too much these days. And often let bad words slip out without self editing. Hallion may have cursed and not realized it. He may have doubted he would let one fly during a game. So, he may be acting completely honest in his righteous denials in this instance.

On the other side of the coin, we all hear things we expect to hear. We're all aware of selective hearing, how many times does our mind finish sentences for us before the words are uttered? That's part of where the wait . . . what? comes from. A noisy stadium, crowd in full throat, Hallion starts a sentence and Price's mind finishes what he's expecting to hear. Perhaps someone in the stands was cursing and Price simply hears what he expects the ump is going to say.

We'll never know. There's no audio, or video one way or the other and both parties are adamant in their stances on the subject. Price is still demanding an apology from Hallion even though it hasn't been proved that he said anything wrong.

I lay part of the blame here at manager Joe Maddon's feet. Since he came to the Rays, Maddon has nurtured an atmosphere of perpetual victimhood amongst the players. Every call, every play, every freak occurrence is somehow proof that everyone is conspiring to hold the Rays down. A Rays pitcher hits an opposing batter -- ball just slipped. An opposing pitcher hits a Rays player -- its a deliberate hit put out by the manager. Better strike zones for the opposing pitcher, blah, blah, blah . . .

*sigh* It's tedious, to say the least. Oddly enough, Maddon himself is one of the people trying to brush this mess under the carpet and get on with things.

As far as the Red Sox are going -- pitcher Clay Buccholz, finally healthy is having the best year of his career. Against the woeful, cellar dwelling Blue Jays, Buccholz mowed through the line up for his league leading 6th win and lowered his ERA to 1.01

But Jays color guy, Dirk Hayhurst decided that Buccholz was cheating because . . . wait for it . . . he touched his sleeve between pitches! Oh the scandal! Then this douchebag doubles down on that by sending a tape to former pitcher Jack Morris, who quickly agrees.

Never mind that Buccholz can be seen putting rosin (a legal substance) on his sleeve during the game. Never mind that he can be seen pouring water on his head between innings. Never mind that no actual players in the game, nor the umpires had any reason to question Buccholz doctoring balls in ANY of his starts this year. No, these two assholes can't get over the fact that their team paid wildly to win the division and the World Series and got a crappy 10-21 joke instead.

Nope, it has to be that Buccholz is cheating. Former Sox pitcher Curt Schilling pointed out on television the other night, that the problem with throwing a spitter is that you can't control the ball. No one, not the pitcher or the catcher knows where the ball is going. If you watch any of Buccholz' games, you can see he's painting the corners with amazing precision. Can't do that throwing a spit ball.

Thankfully, the guys are laughing this mess off. Bottles of lotion, vaseline, etc., are appearing on lockers during interviews.

Man, only 30 games into the season and so much drama already.

Tale of two supposedly crazy starlets

So there was a time Amanda Bynes looked like this:

Then something happened and she's walking the city streets looking like a homeless person with pierced cheeks *groan*, sharpie brows, and half her head shaved:

And also threatening to sue magazines that publish pictures of her she doesn't personally pre-approve. So she's constantly taking self-shots and posting them to twitter, like this:

'Cause all these bathroom selfies make her look far less crazy *eye roll*

Meanwhile today, Miley Cyrus, who's been accused of riding the crazy train these days, appeared in V magazine looking seriously sexy, despite the spiked hair which just doesn't do it for me, sorry:

I'm thinking one of these girls is 'round the bend and the other is just crazy like a fox . . . care to venture which is which?