Required Reading in the NBA and NFL

The only thing funnier than the existence of this book are its reviews at amazon.com
(via Lindsayism).

Two Degrees of 9/11

I had a friend die on September 11th. Actually, I had a friend killed on September 11th. He was on American Airlines Flight 11 and I assume died terrified but I hope he died instantly.

Pendyala Vamsikrishna (everyone called him Vamsi) was a software consultant working in Boston who was scheduled to fly home to Los Angeles September 10th but stayed an extra night because the project wasn’t going right. He postponed his return and fate, or God’s plan, placed him on AA Flight 11.

The tragedy of Vamsi’s death is surpassed only by the death of his wife, who decided that her life was meaningless without him and killed herself a month after September 11. Please don’t ever pretend that the effect of 9/11 was “only” 3,000 killed.

I have to admit that I feel a bit weird writing in this such a somber tone, because Vamsi was the colleague of one of my closest friends -- so he and I were like secondary friends and I don’t want to pretend anything about that (hence the “two degrees” of separation). But Vamsi and I were drinking buddies and in my world that means something.

What strikes me is that I’m almost in tears writing about this, and yet there is a huge segment of the American population that has either forgotten or never believed that we were attacked. I’m not a war monger, but in the true sense of the word what I want is vengeance for my friend.

In the long run it won't be possible, but can we at least try to not allow 9/11 to become some abstract memory we disingenuously pay homage to once a year? Real people died. Americans died. My friend died.

My friend was killed.

Today -- Saturday, September 11, 2004, I’ll drink to Vamsi.

RIP



Click on the photos for more information:





Pendyala Vamsikrishna Memorial Scholarship



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Others blogging:
In the Bullpen
Mark the Pundit
PoliBlog
Backcountry Conservative
Wizbang
South Park Pundit
Dean's World
Blogs of War
Right on Red
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Evil Bitch

Hillary Clinton is a truly evil bitch. Hillary Clinton is a see-you-next-tuesday (NSFW). Only hours after finding out that her husband was hospitalized and would require open heart surgery, this whore goes out and uses his potentially life-threatening emergency to push her own political agenda. I don't understand why no one is covering her opportunism, but here's what she said:

We're delighted we have good health insurance. That makes a big difference. And I hope someday everybody will be able to say the same thing.

Even if Bill were to die on the table the story still should be,

"Opportunistic Bitch Uses Husband's Illness for Political Gain."

I'll send Bill Clinton two prayers: one for a speedy recovery, and another hoping that the shitbag he married gets what she deserves as soon as possible.

Joe Klein is an Idiot

Liberal whiner and chief Clinton apologist Joe Klein is also a rude bastard. On the Tim Russert Show last night Klein was on with Pat Buchanan discussing the upcoming election, when all of a sudden Klein’s cell phone starts ringing. He must think he’s pretty important to need his cell during a televised interview.

I’ve never been so embarrassed for someone in my life.

Winnebago Man

From Cynical-C (a great daily read) comes the Winnebago Man video.

This will never not be funny.

WARNING: NSFW

Soft Bigotry

For some reason I seem to be the only one who recognized the outright hypocrisy of Jorge Bush’s line on the “soft bigotry of low expectations”:

... This principal is challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations, and that is the spirit of our education reform and the commitment of our country: No dejaremos a ningun nino atras -- We will leave no child behind.

How about the soft bigotry of telling a group of immigrants that they and they alone will not be expected to learn English when they come to America? This is the soft bigotry of sending the message to Hispandex that it is ok for them to speak Spanish only, you know, so long as they’re ok with the American Dream not going any further than dishwasher or field worker.

This is the ugliest type of ethnic pandering and it solidified my decision to stay home on November 2nd.

The Death Penalty

Some things are worth killing a man over.

The Media Herd Mentality

From frequent commenter MOG (not to be confused with Mind of Mog) comes this Jonah Goldberg editorial on media bias, or at least media sycophancy. Unlike most of Goldberg's stuff, it's a rather straightforward and reasonable take on the issue.

Giuliani's Speech

A million times better than McCain's, but still it seemed that there was a bit too much personal reliving of 9/11 (too many anecdotes that didn't say much) and overall his tone was a sort of overly-casual. This can be seen as a strength though, especially because of the brevity and wit he used in mocking Kerry -- here Rudy effectively derided Kerry's Senate record while not seeming "mean."

McCain's Speech

Wow. That was absolutely terrible. It may have been the worst delivery of any major speech I've ever seen.

It wasn't very well written either, but the guy seemed to have no idea where the applause lines were.