It's Late

Let me confirm my status as a loser. It's Friday night, about 1 am and I'm drinking Jack Daniels neat, and watching Colin Ferguson with my dog. The dog, being properly diurnal, is trying to sleep. If left to my own devices, I get tired around 3:30 or 4:00 am, but pick up a second wind around 4:30 or so. I used to pull all-nighters during two periods in my life: when I was in college, particularly at Irvine, and when I worked in San Luis Obispo. I can guarantee you that when I worked in SLO, I was the hardest-working person in town. I never took a vacation, worked nights and weekends ... and it paid off ... not at all.

Julia Sweeney and Fountains of Wayne are on Colin Ferguson. That's a dream lineup for me.

Here's irony: Chuck Norris's real first name is Carlos. Carlos Mencia's real first name is Ned. Who's fooling who?

Lastly, a close friend of mine gave me the new Mindy Smith record for Christmas. Nice record, nice piece of work - it's a holiday affair with several original songs written by Mindy with co-writes by Chely Wright and Thad Cockrell. So she shows good taste in collaborators.

I got the impression from listening to her, reading about her, looking at videos of her on YouTube, and from the fact that she plays up the loss of her mother [who died when she was 17] in one of her recent songs "One Moment More" that she was 21 or 22 years old. I was wrong. She's 35. Now, a woman of 35 I would expect to have a little more perspective ... a little more seasoning, if you will. She really sounds and acts like a very young girl. Weird.

Rock Star

I have the dream ticket for disaffected voters. John McCain and [drum roll, please] Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska. Despite being a former Miss Alaska contestant, and being featured in an upcoming Vogue magazine shoot, she just screams to be on someone's ticket.

• She is young, 43 years old
• She has cred as a reformer
• She increased taxation of the oil industry
• She is an environmentalist
• She is married and has four children, the eldest of which is in the army
• She is a lifelong member of the NRA
• She is strongly anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage, but vetoed legislation that would have prohibited state employees in same-sex relationships from getting benefits for their spouses
• If you haven't noticed, she is attractive
• She is female

It is only a matter of time before Washington comes a-calling. See the draft Susan Palin blog here.

Please don't construe the above as being my endorsement of any or all of those positions. I occasionally listen to NPR. That doesn't mean that I agree with all of its mushy-headed liberalism, either.

I saw the movie "Juno" on Christmas Eve. Boy, did I have problems with that one. So many great performances wasted on such an amateurish script. But really, how could you do a movie about a 16 year old girl who has sex and gets preggers without going into the "how the F did this happen?" mode? I mean, really, uh, we had unprotected sex, even though we weren't high or drunk, but I want everyone to not question my judgment and to respect me.

In short, I'm tired of living in non sequitur universe. You know the one where people hate the government on one hand, yet on the other hand, want it to take over everything that they have to pay for.

People who have never owned businesses have no idea how little freedom business owners have. From taxation, medical insurance, employment laws, etc., you have to be a freaking lawyer in order to know how to run a business. And that is sad.

Some year end thoughts.

• CNN's tiresome coverage of Youssif. God love ya, CNN but can you stop thanking yourself for helping this kid out? The last thing the kid needs is to become a de facto instacelebrity. And please, the more you feature him, the more the story is really about CNN. And that stinks to high heaven.
• I don't dislike Mitt Romney. I would like him to go away, however.
• I tried to watch an episode of genius Ricky Gervais' follow-up to "The Office", "Extras." Couldn't make it through. That's more a reflection on me rather than Mr. Gervais.
• I missed Christmas Eve Mass this year. Made me sad.
• People who are borderline religious who lose someone close to them at a young age tend to get more into it. Contrarily, Israel in the 1960s, populated largely by people who had firsthand experience with voluminous loss, had a statistically high percentage of atheists. The maxim, I guess being, lose a little, get more faith, lose a lot, give up on faith.
• Same for adopted kids. They tend to be anti-abortion. Nothing like self-interest to get you straight.

Out!