Baseball, Newsweek, Hillary, and the dreaded Palin...

I have a LOT of thoughts to cover tonight!!! From sports documentaries to Newsweek to politics, I'm going to cover it all.

Here goes...in list format (hang with me, this is a LONG post):

1) When I was completing my Ph.D. coursework I had a few electives to take...and one of those that I took was Dr. Fielding's "Sport in Film" class. I must admit, I loved the class, mostly because I got to see a lot of great sports movies that I had never seen before or hadn't seen in a long time. I also loved it because Dr. Fielding is one of the most knowledgeable teachers I've ever had and I am still continually amazed at his insights and vast knowledge of sport and sport history. Anyway...one of the films we watched was a PBS documentary called "Small Ball", which chronicled the Aptos, California Little League team in 2002 and its journey to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. I have waited and waited, and it was FINALLY available on Netflix so I ordered it. It didn't get very good ratings on Netflix, but Karl agreed to watch it with me nonetheless. I have to admit, it's not the greatest documentary in terms of the story, but the parents in this movie are hilarious. They kept Karl and me laughing the entire time. The kids are pretty funny too. For some reason it kind of reminded us of the movie "Waiting for Guffman" just because of the way the parents acted on camera. Even though the team is great, you have to keep in mind that these are 12 year old boys and the things they said and did brought big smiles to our faces. It also prompted Karl and I to talk a lot about our childhood sports adventures. At one point in the movie one of the parents said, "These are 12 year old kids...it's hard to get inside of their heads and figure out what they are thinking or whether or not they're happy to be here...no matter what happens they're always figuring out what movie to see after the game or where to get pizza." That got us both to start talking about what was going on in our heads at that age. I remembered that after I won the All Around of the Indiana State Gymnastics meet at age 11, all I wanted to do was have my parents drive me around the "circle" in downtown Indianapolis (Monument Circle). That was like the BIGGEST deal at the time. Then I couldn't wait to get back to Evansville for the ACROS Gymnastics team sleepover that night at the gym! The biggest issue back in those days was whether or not to take my recently won medals to the sleepover or leave them at home... haha. (For the record, my mom made me leave them at home. One of my teammates took her silver medal to the sleepover and lost it in the foam pit...I think we found it a few months later!) Karl remembered his days of playing AAU Basketball and the Roberts family that would drive him all over the place from tournament to tournament because their son was on the team too. This got us to talking about how our parents came to trust certain families to take care of us - I remember going to soooo many sleepovers at different friends' houses and now that I look back on that, my parents had to REALLY trust those other parents to take care of me and to be good people. How did they decide which families were good and which ones were not? I am sure I'll ask my mom about this someday when we have a child, because that is definitely a scary thought knowing how many weirdos are out there in the world these days... Anyway, I've gotten completely off topic. If you enjoy sports documentaries and want a lighthearted laugh, rent "Small Ball"!!

2) I was reading the most recent issue of Newsweek today on the elliptical and came to an interesting article...it was titled "Case of the Vanishing Male Voter" and it talked about how men are less likely to vote than women. The really interesting part of this article was when it said, "Men are less likely than women to attend church, consume news, trust authority and believe that people are generally good". The reason this is so interesting is because Karl and I are the exact OPPOSITE in this regard! When I first met Karl he was a regular church-goer and I hadn't been in years. We both consumed news, although I will definitely admit that he is way more up on pop culture than I am. As for trusting authorities and believing that people are generally good, Karl fits this description about 100 times more than I do. I seem to be extremely skeptical of people and it takes me a long time to trust someone. Karl definitely sees the good in everyone, while I am much more cautious about what information I tell people or who I trust. So...I just thought that was really interesting! The article ended, however, by saying that, "Married men are not only more likely to vote than their bachelor counterparts, but according to gender sociologist Michael Kimmel, they are frequently swayed by their wives about who gets their votes. Wise decision." haha, I know that my hard-core support for Hillary was one of the reasons that Karl was behind her too during the Democratic primaries this year. ;)

3) And just for the record, as much as I am now an Obama supporter, I will always, always, ALWAYS believe that Hillary Clinton would make the better President of the two. That is a belief I will take with me to the grave. To say I am saddened by her not receiving the nomination is an understatement. I'm devastated. But I've come to my senses and realize that of the two candidates we have to choose from - Obama and McCain - there is no way I could ever NOT vote for Obama with good conscience. He is a good man with admirable intentions and I do believe he can help to turn our country around and restore our economic systems, our worldwide reputation, and many other things that we desperately need right now - better healthcare, more jobs, better education, etc. As much as it hurts to not have Hillary in that position, I have faith in Obama as President and don't, for the life of me, understand how ANYONE could vote for a ticket that includes the name "Sarah Palin". She's an embarrassment to America and having her in the White House would be an absolute travesty to the American political system. To any of my fellow Hillary-loving friends out there who still don't know what to do about this election, I beg you, make the right decision and vote for Obama. His views and policies match Hillary's almost to a tee. Hillary wants you to vote for him too. We can't take four more years of this Republican nonsense. Do we want to experience another Great Depression? NO! Vote for Obama.

4) Which leads me to my next point! I was going to go off about her $150,000 budget for clothes. Helloooooo!!!! Couldn't that money have been put to better use if it was somehow given to charity or the homeless or some greater cause?!?! Does the woman SERIOUSLY need $150,000 in clothes to campaign????? I love how even the British press is all over her about this...it is an embarrassment to American politics for the rest of the world to see this lavish spending and the fact that she sees nothing wrong with it. Once again, I CANNOT STAND THIS WOMAN! The sound of her voice makes my skin crawl. She is arrogant without reason, she is as smart-alecky as a 15-year-old high school student, and she's as intelligent as a worm. Can November 5th please get here so she will just go away?!?!?! Please, Sarah Palin, I beg you - go back to Alaska, crawl on the back of a dogsleigh and ride off into the distance never to be heard from again on November 6, 2008.

So anyways, because there are upstanding citizens such as Jon Stewart out there, I don't need to go on a tangent about her clothes (oops, too late, I already did)...it's already been done for me by Stewart on the Daily Show! Seriously, if you do anything with your extra 4 minutes today, WATCH THIS VIDEO!



5) And finally, speaking of Jon Stewart, this five-minute clip is absolutely HILARIOUS and shows just how idiotic Sarah Palin really is...she thinks there is a "real America", which implies that there must be a "fake America". Well in that case, put me in the category of Fake America because I never want to be associated with an America in which a woman like this can be the Vice Presidential nominee.




That's all for tonight! Sorry, I just had to get all of my political build-up from the week out of my system! I hope you all have a SUPER weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!