The Secret Life of Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney, we've just realized, is Walter Mitty.
He says he's a longtime hunter, but has been on only two trips, one as a 15-year-old when he hunted rabbits, and then last year, when he "hunted" quail in what sounds like one of those places where they keep the birds in a cage until the rich guy, having been driven to the spot in a jeep, is ready to fire. One of those Dick Cheney shoots-his-friend-in-the-face arrangements.
Here are some other Romney claims:
He is a longtime pilot. On many occasions he has manufactured, and tossed, paper airplanes while making appropriate sound effects.
He has spent many years as a submarine captain. He loves to command the ship to surface amid heavy suds, and then attack the hapless and unwitting rubber duck.
He has been an astronaut. Though he hated those long lines at Space Mountain.
You've heard of Bowdlerized literature. This is called Romneyized personal history.
Or maybe: The Walter Mitty Strategy for winning the presidency.
[Let's enjoy the top of the classic story by James Thurber:
"We're going through!" The Commander's voice was like thin ice breaking. He wore his full-dress uniform, with the heavily braided white cap pulled down rakishly over one cold gray eye. "We can't make it, sir. It's spoiling for a hurricane, if you ask me." "I'm not asking you, Lieutenant Berg," said the Commander. "Throw on the power lights! Rev her up to 8,500! We're going through!" The pounding of the cylinders increased: ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa. The Commander stared at the ice forming on the pilot window. He walked over and twisted a row of complicated dials. "Switch on No. 8 auxiliary!" he shouted. "Switch on No. 8 auxiliary!" repeated Lieutenant Berg. "Full strength in No. 3 turret!" shouted the Commander. "Full strength in No. 3 turret!" The crew, bending to their various tasks in the huge, hurtling eight-engined Navy hydroplane, looked at each other and grinned. "The old man will get us through" they said to one another. "The Old Man ain't afraid of Hell!" . . .
"Not so fast! You're driving too fast!" said Mrs. Mitty. "What are you driving so fast for?"
"Hmm?" said Walter Mitty. He looked at his wife, in the seat beside him, with shocked astonishment. She seemed grossly unfamiliar, like a strange woman who had yelled at him in a crowd. "You were up to fifty-five," she said. "You know I don't like to go more than forty. You were up to fifty-five." Walter Mitty drove on toward Waterbury in silence, the roaring of the SN202 through the worst storm in twenty years of Navy flying fading in the remote, intimate airways of his mind. ]
--
Sports dept.
I gotta take Tiger against the field. It's a tough call, since, if you've ever played golf, you know that the ball usually refuses to do what it is supposed to do. In fact when I play I keep track not of the birdies and pars and bogeys, but of the injuries to bystanders and the damage to nearby houses. When I pull out the driver there's not a window or sliding glass door in the zip code that's safe. Probably I should try a different brand of driver (I use one called The Treefinder).
Anyway, even at the pro level, where the golfers are wizards, the results can be quirky. Yeah, Tiger is better -- but this is golf, and the very best players often wind up knee-deep in the gorse, trying to hack an errant ball back toward civilization. The Masters has a small field, but the foreign players often eat it up, and someone you've hardly ever heard of
might start draining putts from all over the place and play the par-5s in even-threes. But look at his record: Tiger owns Augusta. Remind me of the last person who matched his early hype? Nicklaus played with Woods when Woods was still an amateur, and said the kid could win 10 or 11 times here. Sounded crazy. Then. (How good is he? Over the past decade he's played the par-5 No. 13, the one where the creek snakes around the green, in 26 under par.)
In the Talking Points video with Mike Wilbon, Mr. Tony said he'd take the field. You should watch the video. With all due respect to the very smart folks who put together the printed sports section -- I am a big fan of all the new features, including the Sports Bog -- the puny little partial-transcript of the video that runs on page 2 doesn't do this hallway gabfest justice. Which is one of the things that Tony and Mike are harumphing about in the video.
Mike also has a fine tribute to Eddie Robinson. See also the obit by Eric Prisbell. Robinson received a great many honors in his lifetime, but, as Wilbon notes, he operated out of the sight of the mainstream media for much of his coaching career. He started coaching in 1941, but not until 1966 did he begin to get acclaim, and most of his honors came many years after that.
A line from the Wilbon piece jumped out at this reader:
"With Southeastern Conference schools unwilling to even recruit black players until the late 1960s, a great many (perhaps even most) of the best black ballplayers the first 70 years of the 20th century went to historically black colleges."
Jim Crow wasn't so long ago. I became a fan of the football Gators (I swear this is the last time I'll mention them for at least another week) in 1969, the year of super-sophomores John Reaves and Carlos Alvarez. The number of African American players on that team: Zero. Of course I didn't register that (we listened to games on the radio). Not until the next year, 1970, did the Gators field their first black player, Willie Jackson. If you were a black athlete in the Deep South prior to that point, you very likely would have played for someone like Eddie Robinson at Grambling.
Unless, of course, you were discouraged altogether by a society that told you, day in and day out, that you were a second-class citizen.
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What Does it Take to Break a HANS Device?
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I believe this is the first device review I've ever seen that also includes a picture of a zebra! Gear at CoolSmartPhone.com has a review of the new HTC Touch Cruise and really seems to like it. Lots of great shots give you a feel for the size and look of the device. Plus, he keeps calling it the Tom Cruise, which is very tempting. So, ahem, cruise on over for an interesting review.
Kings 116, Grizzlies 113
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Molina's homers cure home blues, Zito wins again
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Nekura Twilight Watch
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A curb on gay marriage will fall
In a major victory for advocates of same-sex marriage rights, the House voted by a wide margin yesterday to repeal a 95-year-old law that prevents gay and lesbian couples from most other states from marrying here, setting the stage for Massachusetts to join just one other state, California, in allowing same-sex couples to marry regardless of ... (Read on Source)
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RANTING ABOUT RISK AGAIN
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Journalist Leroy Sievers dies at 53 (Reuters)
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3 Essential Tips for New FOREX Traders
The FOREX market is war. The most powerful weapon you can take into this raging battle is a keen mind, fully loaded with knowledge. Here are 3 basic tips for investors, new to the FOREX market, looking to expand their mental arsenal!
1. Create a personal trading journal. Write in this journal every trading day to write down your trades, a brief explanation of what made you place the trade, and an evaluation of that particular trade's performance. Make notes of any upcoming major economic events or news which may cause market volatility for a particular day and avoid trading until you have a clearer picture of that days market action.
2. Determine your risk/reward ratio. A risk/reward ratio of 1:2 means that you are risking an certain amount to receive at least the twice that amount in return, if all goes according to plan. When you are new to the FOREX it is sometimes better to trade conservatively and apply a very strict ratio closer to 1:1 and risk no more than 2-3% of your total capital per trade execution. In this battle survival is everything.
3. Don't burn yourself out, take breaks from trading. While it is essential to study as many FOREX resources as possible when you begin trading the FOREX, don't kill yourself doing it. It is a good idea to take a break from trading ever now and then. Remember, the FOREX is open 24/7, so there are always great opportunities out there and they'll still be there waiting for you after you take some time out for yourself. All that great knowledge you have is useless if you are too stressed out to efficiently use it. Set daily goals, such as X-pips per day up or down and then stop for the day. This helps battle greed and chasing losses, two of your most mighty enemies!
Follow these essential tips and apply them to your daily trading routine and don't forget the golden rule of FOREX trading...
MAXIMIZE YOUR PROBABILITIES, MAXIMIZE YOUR PROFITS!
If you would like to learn more about Forex Trading come and visit http://investing4dummies.googlepages.com/ for more information on currency trading and to learn how to trade like a pro!
Copyright © 2007 - Zach Ford - All Rights Reserved You may freely reprint this article only if it remains entirely unchanged, including all ACTIVE links. Thanks!
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Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/12/prweb1794774.htm
name: MAGPIE