Get a Grip People!

My conservative friends need to get a dose of reality. Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty is no more of a hillbilly redneck than Buddy Ebson was Jed Clampett. I’m sure his comments in GQ were a marketing ploy and if he is anything, he is a brilliant marketing man. The Robertson Family enjoying Martha's Vineyard

 

After the recall of Gray Davis here in California we elected Arnold Schwarzenegger governor. Too many people (mostly conservatives) thought we were electing Conan the Barbarian and he would swing his mighty sword and straighten out Sacramento overnight. It didn’t happen. Arnold even hung Conan’s sword on the wall of his office. It was a movie prop.

 

Some conservatives are excited by another strong man (I guess) Chris Christie the governor of New Jersey. He’s cut school budgets, bullied teachers, public employees and strong armed reporters. He’s rough, tough and ready to push around all those soft liberals. He’s also got the highest unemployment in the North East, he’s given tax breaks to money losing casino operations, he was charged by the US Attorney’s office for exceeding his travel and entertainment budget guidelines when he was  US Attorney for New Jersey and now the bridge scandal. Ever think he is maybe just another fat pant bully politician from New Jersey?

 

John Wayne was and is another conservative hero. Tough Marine hero, western cowboy hero, all around bad ass. Never served in the military, lived in Newport Beach California not on a ranch like you’d think Rooster Cogburn would. The worst thing you could hear in Basic training was “Cut that John Wayne shit out trooper.” He was a guy who made movies.

 

Ronald Reagan made training films during WWII, never left Hollywood. Nancy broke up his marriage to Jane Wyman. Go to the RR museum and gaze on pure un-adulterated fantasy land. Rough and tough Ronnie used an English saddle when he rode around his Santa Barbara Ranch all dressed up in his cowboy costume. He also lost 249 Marines in Lebanon (after being warned security wasn't any good) and got the hell out over night and then kicked ass in Grenada right?

Prep school cheer leader George W. Bush bought his ranch shortly before he ran for President, somebody taught him how to operate a chainsaw and he basically cut brush for 8 years.  The ranch was on the market and sold after he left office. Presumably his Ford F-150 and the chainsaw were part of the deal.

Roy Rogers was born in Chicago, Gabby Hayes was an Englishman and perennial virgin Doris Day was a big band singer. As Artie Shaw once said, “I knew Doris day before she was a virgin.” Charlton Heston wasn’t Moses, kids.

Your uncritical, magical thinking leads you to believe Obama is fascist-socialist-communist-Muslim-born in Kenya-weakest president ever who is stronger than Hitler. Get a grip people.

Whoops, I almost forgot you thought Mitt Romney was a guy who built businesses with his own hands and ingenuity.

Now some conservative “thought leaders” are championing Russia’s Vladimir Putin for his conservative values.   If Putin thought it would garner him support he’d take off his shirt, put his foot in the middle of Phil Robertson’s chest and rip that idiot beard out by the handful!

 

You people need to grow the fuck up! Check out Putin being the manly. conservative man before being photo shopped into the great outdoors.

 He could run for President and some of you'd vote for him. Probably win South Carolina hands down after he wrestles a couple of the other candidates into submission right on Fox News Live!

Things Change-Get Used to it!

                                                            Know who this guy is?

He is John Francis Fitzgerald, the first Irish Catholic Mayor of Boston. "Honey Fitz" attended Boston Latin High School and Boston College. He started Harvard Medical School and dropped out after a year because of the death of his father. He was a huge baseball fan and threw out the first pitch at the brand new Fenway Park in 1912. His great granddaugther Caroline Kennedy threw out the first pitch on the 100th anniversary of Fenway this year. Fitzgerald was elected mayor of Boston 3 times, in 1906 and again in 1910 and 1912. His election as mayor broke the back of the old money, old family control of the Boston Brahmin's and local politics would never be the same. One of his supporters was confronted by a Brahmani who exclaimed "How did this happen?' The supporter said, "We vote more and fuck more than your people do!" Finally the Irish in Boston, the people who scrubbed the floors, did the laundry, unloaded the ships, swept the streets and had faced the "No Irish need apply" signs had one of their own as mayor. It was hard for the old line to accept, but accept it they did and life moved forward. When "Honey Fitz" died in 1950 a Saltonstall and a Lodge were among the pallbearers.

                            LA fans cheer the KINGS at Stanley Cup Victory Parade in LA.

Notice anything different about these fans? I thought so. I'm not surprised since my wife said the topic of conversation for the past month in Urban Home's huge warehouse was Kings, Kings, Kings.

99% of the guys who unload, load and deliver the furniture are Latinos. They are nuts about soccer, baseball, basketball and college sports, too.

                                            Even more diversity from King fandom:

                                                                  Cuba Gooding Jr.

Random and assorted hockey fans

                        She is pretty famous and goes to as many Kings games as she can.
I'd guess Taylor didn't grow up in a hockey hotbed. Neither didher friend Ms Delorenzo.

In my home state, baby boomers were at best one generation removed from families who spoke Norwegian, Swedish, Polish and German in the home. I remember my grandmother speaking on the phone in Norwegian all through my childhood and visiting homes with her where only Norwegian was spoken. Friends my age from Boston remember the same things only in Italian, French or in dialects direct from Ireland. Here in SoCal and all across the country, Hispanic families are going through the same process as our families did. Why speak Spanish in the home? Because that's what grandma speaks and that's what mom and dad grew up with. Young Hispanics in California speak perfect English and they retain Spanish for the same reason my grandmother retained her Norwegian. This generation of Hispanics, like my relatives are not passing on the language to their kids. Storekeepers used to speak Norwegian to their Norwegian customers. Italian bakers in Boston's North End spoke Italian to theirs. As Americans this is an ongoing process that is over 2 centuries old and you'd think we'd be used to it by now.

Phil and Tony Esposito's Italian immigrant parents didn't know a hockey puck from a boccie ball. Didn't stop their sons from being great players, did it?

                                          The 5 foot 5 Japanese basketball coach!

Japanese American Yutaka Shimuza, long time SoCal high school basketball coach recently died at 89. He coached and consulted his entire life. He was Sydney Wicks High School coach. Derrick Taylor the coach at Woodland Hills Taft was working with Shimuza and tells this story:

When Taylor was coaching in the 2007 McDonald's All-American game and walked into a room for breakfast with Shimizu, a familiar voice spoke up: "Coach Shimizu."
It was John Wooden, the former UCLA coach. "That's when you know you're the man, when the ultimate coach calls you over,"

Coach Shimuza was interned during WW2 for being a Japanese American.

I think its about time all of us old white guys just get the fuck over ourselves, don't you?