Sunday, February 25, 2007

"The best I've every played with" - Larry Bird

Dennis Johnson died last Thursday. He was one of the greatest players to ever put on a Celtics uniform. Larry Bird said DJ was "the best I've ever played with." Bob Ryan proves once again why he's the best sportswriter in the country.

I am also here to say that I have seen every great basketball player of the last 50 years, and I have seen only one person play the game in the manner of a Dennis Johnson. That building in Springfield is a Hall of Shame without a Dennis Johnson plaque hanging on the wall. But no matter. DJ left us with the indelible memory of a unique basketball player, and that is enough.
Read the whole column.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Was Hayek a conservative after all?

Stimulating and erudite.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

The libertarians, do they matter?

Ponder the fact that the libertarians slipped out of the Big Tent last November.

Monday, February 12, 2007

A petty governor disses a great figure

Someone ought to tell Governor Deval Patrick, Democrat, that the Gipper carried the liberal State of Massachusetts twice. Not once but twice! That's worth a proclamation, isn't it?
Not even one for the Gipper?

The new icon of Massachusetts Democrats has rebuffed efforts to commemorate a day for Ronald Reagan, the last Republican to win the Commonwealth in a presidential election. And Reaganites are not happy.

Governor Deval Patrick decided not to sign a proclamation recognizing Feb. 6 as "Ronald Reagan Day." A month into his term as governor, snubbing the Gipper's birthday has left Patrick open to partisan sniping.

A prominent conservative said Democratic New York Governor Eliot Spitzer declared the holiday.

"It's the difference between a little more sophisticated guy who's governor and a guy who's still playing partisan politics after a campaign," said Grover Norquist, founder and chairman of the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project.

Thirty-three governors -- 20 Republicans and 13 Democrats -- inked the agreement to recognize Reagan's birthday in their states, Norquist said. The 17 remaining governors either didn't reply or refused outright; Patrick was a frank "no," Norquist said.

State Republican Party Chairman Peter Torkildsen said he felt disbelief.

"To me, Ronald Reagan is one of the great figures of the 20th century, and not only that, he carried Massachusetts twice, which no Republican for president had done since Dwight Eisenhower," Torkildsen said in an interview.
This doesn't nothing to enhance Deval's stature. Does anyone remember an administration getting off to such a clumsy start?

Monday, February 05, 2007

New York Times does pop sociology very badly

The New York Times searches for meaning in some very bad Super Bowl commercials.

Then, too, there was the unfortunate homonym at the heart of a commercial from Prudential Financial, titled “What Can a Rock Do?”

The problem with the spot, created internally at Prudential, was that whenever the announcer said, “a rock” — invoking the Prudential logo, the rock of Gibraltar — it sounded as if he were saying, yes, “Iraq.”

To be sure, sometimes “a rock” is just “a rock,” and someone who has watched the Super Bowl XIX years in a row only for the commercials may be inferring things that Madison Avenue never meant to imply


Leaves us wondering, did Stuart Elliot watch the same commercials as the rest of us?

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Colts do it!

Da Bears were really never in this game once Manning got his groove.

I have to ask myself: After watching the AFC Championship two weeks ago, what right did the Chicago Bears have to be in this year's Super Bowl. The Bears' lackluster performance demonstrates that the National Football Conference is really pathetic; so much for the NFL's vaunted parity.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

More than warm private jets

Interesting post on global warming from Glenn Reynolds.

McDonald's beats Starbucks coffee, but not Brookline

What I've known for years. You want a cup of coffee that tastes burned and sometimes bitter, go to Starbucks and save the world. You want a decent cup in a pinch, go to McDonald's. I've held this view even before McDonald's switched to Paul Newman's brand.

Say what you will about the Golden Arches, but at least the conglomerate isn't pretentious enough to call its employees "baristas."

Meanwhile there are more than few old timers who will miss McDonald's in Brookline which is closing its doors. Who would have thought Brookline residents would be defending McDonald's as a social hot spot.