It Does Snow In Arizona.

These two pictures were taken on the way up to Flagstaff on Friday. It was snowing pretty good on the I-17 between the Schnebly Hill Road exit and Munds Park. I don't typically take pictures of snow in Arizona, but since I field questions about whether or not it snows in Arizona, here you go. This is about an hour and half north of Phoenix. Around 6000' elevation or so.

New Terminology?

Many people use their blogs for political reasons all the time. I choose to only use it for that once in a great while. The media obsesses a lot over the '08 election, they apparently think that their success or demise depends on who's in office. You and I? We know better than that.

Let's start out with a term and a definition. Conservatese. It's a language that apparently everybody can speak if they're running for office, or are elected. One doesn't have to be an actual conservative in order to speak conservatese. Yes, yes, I know what you're all thinking - you think that I'm going to talk about our senior Arizona senator. Not this time. I'm talking about Mitt Romney.

I realize that Romney is now out of the running, but I heard something on the radio 2 days ago that just set me off. Analysts are saying that since Romney had a poor Super Tuesday, conservatives must have stayed home. I don't know of a single conservative who voted in the primary who voted for him. Certain talk show hosts are basically treating the people who voted against Romney like a bunch of idiots. Who in the heck dubbed this guy the conservative golden boy? He must have really talked a good talk, but I must have missed that talk. Every time I heard that guy speak, I didn't trust him at all. At all, I can't emphasize that enough. I do not believe for one second that he had the country's best interest in mind when running. You know when you fall asleep in front of the t.v. only to wake up at 3 a.m. to some sleazy accident lawyer telling you how fast he goes in his Corvette chasing ambulances? That's Mitt Romney to me. He's not "polished", he's slick. He's not "confident", he's arrogant. The guy wouldn't know the truth if it punched him in the face. I heard that he was dubbed a "true Reagan conservative". Does that mean that he would enthusiastically sign off on an amnesty bill if he were president? How is state subsidized health care conservative? How is raising taxes (or in Romney-speak, "fees") conservative? How does a "conservative" get elected in a state that has sent Ted Kennedy and John Kerry to the floor of the U.S. Senate time and time again get elected? I'm just curious to know a straight answer to any of those questions. That is impossible for politicians. But, as we all know, we don't get straight answers to problems in politics, just a general ambiguous "answer" followed up by a mangled "solution" to a simple problem. How hard is it? Build a fence in the north and the south (hire Disneyland and Las Vegas casino security forces to police the border - nothing would get through illegally). Keep taxes low. Stay out of education. Be the first president in nearly 50 years to NOT sign off on a version of NCLB. Enforce the laws that are in effect. So, to my questions for Romney, I'll never get the answers.

If Romney was the litmus test for being a true conservative, apparently my pH is way out of whack. I'll come up with a new term for myself which I'll share in my next political blog posting in mid-November (if I even care by then). The term "conservative" is apparently meaningless now. There is no litmus test for being conservative anymore. If Romney passed it, then that test is garbage.

Citizen Romney, I hate to break the news to you. You didn't lose because "conservatives stayed home", you lost because conservatives did show up at the voting booth, and told you they didn't want you around politics anymore. Take our advice.

Yes, I have approval to post these pictures!

See Aly and Amy. See Aly and Amy's bellies. Aly is 6 months along. Amy is 5 months along.

That's Why They Play The Game...

First off, congratulations to the New York Football Giants.

For those of you who know me fairly well, here's why I think football stats mean nothing (and I think stats in sports in general mean nothing). Stats always indicate something that has happened in the past. Everything resets to zero when the kickoff takes place. The media obsesses about stats, since they seem to think that they represent what will happen in the future. It sucks the humanity and life out of sports in general, in my opinion. I did not listen to, read, or watch any coverage for the past 2 weeks involving the Super Bowl. Why talk for 14 days about a 60 minute game?

Everyone predicted the Patriots to win the Super Bowl, and statistically speaking, they should have. Brady had the best year of any QB. The Pats were undefeated. The Giants went into the Super Bowl the lowest seed ever. Why does all of that matter? It doesn't. It doesn't matter one bit, and that was evidenced tonight.

The Giants' defense showed up to play, and play they did. They got to Brady on very many plays. If you would have told me one year ago that a Manning would have been Super Bowl MVP, I wouldn't have picked Eli to be that Manning. Peyton could only watch his little brother from afar. The Giants overcame some absolutely huge obstacles to get to Glendale. They beat Dallas and Green Bay in their respective stadiums in the playoffs. Eli Manning did something that Brett Favre has never done - win in Dallas.

It's too bad that we have to hear the idiotic 1972 Dolphins yack it up about how they're the best team ever. Shut up already, everyone thinks you're annoying (unless you're a Miami fan).

Joe Buck was his typical awful self. I cannot describe in words how terrible he is in the booth. I listened for him to say one thing insightful the entire game, and he failed me. Again. When the Giants had to go for it on 4th and 1 during their final scoring drive, Buck actually speculated whether or not the Giants would go for it or not. You think? Get off the air. I think I know ONE sports fan that likes him, but I think he gets Joe confused with Jack. Night and day. At least he's better than Gumball from the NFL Network, Buck at least knows what a football is shaped like.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers surprised me during the halftime show. They sounded really good, I've always enjoyed their music. The halftime shows haven't been good at all since U2 played a few years ago. The Rolling Stones were a trainwreck, and I won't even talk about Prince last year. This is probably the first time Tom Petty has played a concert where there wasn't the massive brown cloud hanging in the air. And, thankfully there was no wardrobe malfunction with one of those guys... It was nice to see Jordin Sparks (from Glendale) sing the national anthem. I do not watch American Idol, but I read that she seems to be a class act.

Overall, the game was a good game, which is way more than what could be said about Super Bowls in general for the past 15 years. There were few penalties and very few turnovers. So, media, you can stop criticizing Eli. If you want to criticize a quarterback, criticize Romo. Yeah, right, you can never do that, he's your darling.

Two weeks until Daytona!!