Working Class Hero

Saint Richard the Lionhearted, champion of the Crusades and Vomit, is selling himself as "a guy from the steel mills of Western Pennsylvania."

Now it is true that there are steel mills in Butler PA. Of course Mitt's mom and dad both worked at the local VA hospital. I think that's the kind of institution Kid Rick would like to cut, but that's neither here nor there. Rick probably went to school with some of those steel mill kids, but somehow I doubt he ever went near one.

Young Santorum is said to have spent most of his time on the grounds of the hospital where his parents worked as a pychologist and a nurse.

Today, Santorum claimed Michigan was "a huge win for us." That's the papal We you know.

Sorry Rick,you lost. You are a loser. God has abandoned you.

Mitt Squeaks By

I love Rick Santorum. He began his victory speech just seconds before he was declared the loser. (It turns out he knew already.)

For all Saint Rick's entreaties, God is still on Mitt's side. And believe me, WMR needs all the heavenly help he can get after he has stumbled and bumbled to become the most incredibly unsteady frontrunner imaginable. Next week Newt will be back so the clown show will be back at full tilt.

Photo Finish

What's wrong with this picture? Mitt was supposed to have it locked up by now, not even with Saint Rick in Romney's native state.

Mitt seems to have made himself terminally unlikeable. And it's not just ultra-rightist supporters of the intolerant and intolerable Santorum,it's EVERYBODY but Ann and the kids who don't like Mitt.

Romney completely deserves the uncertainty hanging over the Michigan primary.

The Republicans are so screwed and they so know it.

Good as Gold

Meryl Streep wore a gold dress. I guess she knew something I didn't and several thousand others who picked Viola Davis, didn't. Viola rushed to congratulate Meryl, who gave Viola a little pat on the cheek, thus allowing Ms.Davis to stay in character as Abileen from The Help.

They should have given more time to Uggi the dog from The Artist.

Everybody on Twitter was wishing Chris Rock had been chosen as host. Billy Crystal and Sandra Bullock both looked like they had cosmetic touchups for the occasion.

Angelina Jolie proved you can look over-stunning.

Rooney Mara was the evening's sensation.

The show gets E for effort. Billy Crystal gets A for ancient. And the ceremony gets D for dull.

Who won the All-Star game? Just asking.

Perhaps they'll call off the rest of the Republican primary campaign for lack of interest.

Oh, and finally... Rick Santorum makes me throw up.

Gassed

With his last demagogic gasp, Newt says he could get gas prices down to $2.50 a gallon. I think he wants to do this by drilling in all 50 states. His pals Saint Rick and WMR take pretty much the same approach, with Mitt feeling the added urgency of filling those Caddy tanks.

The President says there's no Silver Bullet to lower petro prices, but that doesn't mean he's not the Lone Ranger. He alone can tap the strategic reserve; he alone can squeeze Ahmadinejad. Maybe it's not silver, but it sure is a bullet.

Saint Rick, fresh off dissing public schools, now says O. is an elitist for wanting kids to go to college. I don't think even the nuns will go there.

At the governor's conference, not a Republican governor could be found who likes these guys.

Oh, Mitt! No, Mitt!

Every time you think WMR may have finally turned the corner, he trips over his own feet. Today he spoke to 1200 supporters invited by the Detroit Economic Club, giving what was billed as a major economic address. Well, first of all, it was far from major, the highlight was a repetition of his 20% tax cut plan, criticized from one side because he can't pay for it, and attacked by Saint Rick for being "too left."

But gaffe of the day came when Mittens was trying to show the Motor City execs how devoted he was to American wheels. Mitt said he drives a Mustang and a Chevy pickup. Wife Ann, meanwhile, alternates between "a couple of Cadillacs." Did he know he was going to say that?

To top (bottom?) all of this, there was the venue. Ford Field, the Detroit Lions home stadium, holds 60,000 for a game, almost 80,000 with field level seating. Mitt was pretty lonely looking on the 30 yard line. Even the folding chairs weren't filled.

It won't matter much if Romney wins Michigan, which I guess he will. But, once again, Willard is looking like God's gift to Barack Obama. Yes, Rick, that's your God. Thank Him you're not getting the nomination.

Scalded

So much for linsanity. The dream run of Harvard grad, up-from-nowhere, overnight sensation, spawner of a thousand puns, Jeremy Lin was surrounded, slashed and pummeled by the Miami Heat tonight. Lin Tweeted:

"Tough game but time to learn from my mistakes. Thankful for awesome vets on our team! On to the next one..."

The kid's still a winner.

In 17 days, a player does not reach the level of Lebron James, or even Mario Chalmers for that matter

James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh totally outplayed the Knicks star trio of Amare Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler. Lin never had a chance. It's a team sport after all.

The kid's still a winner.

Split Screen

I watched the Jeremy Lin show, but flipped over to the 20th (!) GOP debate during halftime and timeouts. I caught some highlights of both games, along with Coach d'Antoni's post-
game presser and Rick Santorum's post-debate interview.

Neither game was exciting. The Knicks had a good night against the listless Hawks. Jeremy Lin was solid without needing his usual display of heroics. Mitt Romney had a good night against a somewhat bumbling Rick Santorum. Saint Rick seemed to feel that God was on his side, but nobody told God. WMR was well prepared, even armed with his effective, if outlandish, claim that Santorum was responsible for "Obamacare" because he backed Arlen Specter's PA re-election bid.

Now Lin has to face Lebron in Miami tomorrow night. Mitt must still face O.

In hoops, I'll be cheering for more Linsanity. In the Republican primary, it's all Insanity and I just wish it would end, so the President could take the court and go for a blowout.
.

Jesus Scotus

The supremes have taken the first step toward abolishing affirmative action.

The Court had signaled this a long time ago. In 2007, Roberts wrote a decision on high school admissions in whic he made the profound legal point that the way to stop discrimination by race was to stop discriminating by race. This was the same exact legal thing that led the brilliant Antonin Scalia to brilliantly observe, apropos the execrable Citizen's United decision, that if someone doesn't like superPac ads he can just not watch them. Scalia must think that commercials can be found in the TV listings.

The SCOTUS Catholic majority thinks only in the abstract and focuses only on the isolated individual. Society (the society envisaged by the Constitution) -- the common good -- is of no importance to Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito. the other practicing Catholic, Anthony Kennedy is fundamentally conservative but not as dogmatic as the Sacred Four whose jurisprudence is subordinate to their Latinate principles.

It is a perilous coincidence that the Scholastics on the Supreme Court betray more or less the same point of view as the new darling of the GOP primary race, Rick Santorum.

I wonder what any of them thinks of the gravity of child sex abuse.

The Church's Man

When Saint Rick identified the president's "phony theology" as the non-biblical view of "radical environmentalists", the candidate clarified to an incredulous Bob Schieffer that 'we're not here to serve the earth. That is not the objective, man is the objective."

If Santorum had written that instead of speaking it, he would have capitalized "Man". He also said Obama was imposing his values on the church. Again, make that "Church" with a capital "C".

Only Roman Catholics say "Man" to mean people, human beings, men and women. And only Catholics say "the Church." That's because traditionalist catholics like Saint Rick believe in the "one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. Remember that Rome does not permit protestants to partake of the Sacred Eucharist.

Growing up, we used to say that some people were "more Catholic than the Pope." Saint Rick actually seems to fit in this category since he disagrees with the the Pope on the death penalty and health care as well as immigration. But on issues of what The Church calls "natural law", Santorum is on the same page as the Vatican: birth control, abortion, homosexuality, stem cell research.

John F. Kennedy had to defend his religion against those who feared he would take orders from the Pope. It was, of course, a bogus issue and JFK handled easily. With this guy, it's a much more serious matter.

Saber Rattlers

That old warhorse John McCain is calling for sponsoring arms for the Syrian opposition, just as members of that opposition are accused of assassinating a prosecutor and a judge. Now Assad has killed more than 7000 people, but at the brink of civil war, this is no time for mischievous machismo. And Rick Santorum will probably be on the bandwagon by tomorrow. The current crop of Republicans, should they gain more power, will lead us into global conflagration as well as domestic chaos. I wish I were exaggerating.

Beyond the Pale

Until now I've pretty much been content to make fun of Rick Santorum and his zanily extreme views. That was mainly because it's obvious that he could never be elected President. But now he's really frightening me. Today he accused Mr. Obama of espousing "some phony theology. Not a theology based on the bible."

Now for Mr. Santorum, a theology based on the bible is thee 13th century theology of the Roman Church, updated in the 16th century to declare war on Protestants and in the 20th Century to prohibit birth control and abortion, as well as all sex outside marriage. Santorum today said that Obama practices a different kind of Christianity or at least what he regards as Christianity.

Saint Rick has already announced publicly that he thinks the Crusades get a bad rap when they are defined as aggression against Islam. Now he seems to be closing in on restoring the Inquisition.

Political commentators say that Santorum is wooing the Tea Party but I'm guessing that he's now stumping for positions even the Tea Party may consider beyond the pale.

Santorum today also tried to take down Mitt Romney's work on behalf of the 2002 Winter Olympics. Even Newt Gingrich hasn't gone that far.

The fact is Saint Rick is not a nice man. He's a slimeball behind a pseudo-pious mask.

David Brooks Revealed

I've known for a long time that David Brooks was an idiot.. Now a lot of my fellow Knicks fans know too. This because the New York Times token right-wing columnist wrote an op-ed piece called "The Jeremy Lin Problem."

"Jeremy Lin is anomalous in all sorts of ways. He’s a Harvard grad in the N.B.A., an Asian-American man in professional sports. But we shouldn’t neglect the biggest anomaly. He’s a religious person in professional sports."

Mr. Brooks was definitely not watching when Allan Houston was a Knicks star. Or Charlie Ward.
..

"The moral universe of modern sport is oriented around victory and supremacy. The sports hero tries to perform great deeds in order to win glory and fame. It doesn’t really matter whether he has good intentions. His job is to beat his opponents and avoid the oblivion that goes with defeat."

This is pure David Brooks: make an obvious point but make it extremely so it can be the premise for a totally fallacious essay. Defeat does not bring oblivion. You've got to play again tomorrow, or the next time. Jeremy Lin lost tonight. He'll win the next time.
...

"The modern sports hero is competitive and ambitious. (Let’s say he’s a man, though these traits apply to female athletes as well). He is theatrical. He puts himself on display.

He is assertive, proud and intimidating. He makes himself the center of attention when the game is on the line. His identity is built around his prowess. His achievement is measured by how much he can elicit the admiration of other people — the roar of the crowd and the respect of ESPN."

This part is pure boilerplate. Blah blah blah.
...
"Soloveitchik plays off the text that humans are products of God’s breath and the dust of the earth, and these two natures have different moral qualities, which he calls the morality of majesty and the morality of humility. They exist in creative tension with each other and the religious person shuttles between them, feeling lonely and slightly out of place in both experiences."

So who's this guy Solowhosis? Sounds vaguely communist. what Mr. Brooks is, mostly, what used to be called a pseudo-intellectual. The argument of this column is patently absurd. Lots of fans on Twitter blamed the column for the Knicks loss to the Hornets tonight. Which is itself sort of linsane.

Jeremy Lin is now living this creative contradiction. Much of the anger that arises when religion mixes with sport or with politics comes from people who want to deny that this contradiction exists and who want to live in a world in which there is only one morality, one set of qualities and where everything is easy, untragic and clean. Life and religion are more complicated than that."

Jeremy Lin doesn't seem angry. But maybe I'm missing the point. Then again, what is the point anyhow? We'll have to ask Soloveitchik.

Gary Carter 1954-2012

Guys like Gary Carter, Tim Tebow, Jeremy Lin, guys who thank God for their exploits in the game, probably do get some of their drive from their faith. But in the end, what counts is skill. Skill and hard work.

Doc Gooden: "I relied on Gary for everything when I was on the mound, including location, what pitch to throw and when. Even when I didn't have my best stuff, he found a way to get me through the game. He was just a warrior on the field."

Peter Gammons: "I was our last hope," (Carter) wrote, "and as I took my place and looked out at Schiraldi, all sounds shrank back, and I felt a presence in me, or perhaps besides me, a calming certainty that I wasn't alone. I was not alone, and I was not, so help me, going to make the last out of the World Series. I felt certain of that."

So confident and ready was Carter that he lashed at the first pitch, a fastball -- and fouled it back. Schiraldi threw two more pitches that would skirt the strike zone. Carter was comfortable enough to let them pass. On the fourth pitch, Carter, who had tied the game in the eighth when the Mets were down to their last five outs, lashed a single into left field.

With that one swing under ultimate duress, Carter provided the first light of hope to what would be one of the greatest rallies in baseball history. Within four batters the Mets would score three times without an extra-base hit to win the game.

Set aside the hit. Imagine the strength it took for Carter to stand there and be "certain" he was not going to make the last out. Such sangfroid is what defines Carter as a man, not just a ballplayer, of supreme conviction.

Wrote Carter even soon after the moment of a lifetime, "I'll always be grateful for the dream season of 1986. In a corner of my mind I will stand forever with my bat cocked, waiting for the two-one pitch from Calvin Schiraldi."

what a great nickname for a baseball player. Kid.

The Iran Game

Apparently the Iranian president's show-and-tell with his supposedly new nuclear centrifuges and fuel rods is in the same league as Colin Powell's Iraq display at the UN -- an attempt at saber rattling for domestic consumption meant to cover up the increasingly dire effects of the boycott by Europe and the US. Likewise the threat to cut off oil to six European countries.

trouble is that Thai officials are saying that that Bangkok car bomb was meant for Israeli diplomats. Israeli intelligence surely know that the Iranians are way short of having a nuclear bomb, but they may still want to pre-emptively strike at the Persian military program.

expect Saint Rick to do his own saber rattling in next few days. Santorum will encourage Israel, and challenge the US to either back Israel, or to launch an attack of its own.

Meanwhile, Saint Rick has pulled ahead of Mitt Romney in the primary campaign. Mitt seems be inching close to the edge of the cliff. Which means, I'm afraid, that we have to conjure with the possibility of Santorum getting the GOP nomination. Or, and I do not rule this out, the party will have to find another candidate, who will not be able to get in the remaining primaries and who will therefore have to be drafted. But would Santorum, Gingrich and Romney let that happen? No.

Santorum's extreme positions bring back memories of 1964. Obama may yet become the Second Coming of Lyndon Johnson. Wouldn't that be something?

On His Side

I don't know why God annoys me so much when his infallible guidance is invoked by Rick Santorum, but I'm kind of inspired when Jeremy Lin gives his God credit for breathing life into the previously hapless New York Knicks.

I know one thing: Saint Rick would never have made that shot. O. on the other hand, maybe.

Her Name Was Whitney

I know a lot of people who did shit. They hung out with other people who did shit. They reached the lowest zone of hell. They were without hope. They lost everything. Jobs. Homes. Families. They have friends who died young. They could have died more than once. They have today, but tomorrow is not guaranteed.

It is a real pain in the ass.

R.I.P.

The Grammys is a schlocky, often awful show, but that was a lot of talent on the stage, live -- Adele -- terrific; old and a little creaky, but still recognizably great -- Sir Paul; and the ghost of sadness and lament -- Whitney.

Sic Dixerunt Episcopi

Obviously, celibate Roman Catholic bishops don't approve of sexual pleasure, except when they themselves or their priests diddle little boys.

The hierarchy's refusal to take the President's clever move as welcome cover, puts our dear dangling Mitt Romney in another tough spot. We already know that Saint Rick and the Venerable Newt will back the prelates. Which means Muddling Mitt will have to join the procession. Most women use birth control, and most of them welcome covering the pill with health insurance. And not that many Catholic women are going to be forced by a bunch of sex-averse men to vote for a Mormon presidential candidate.

let's just pray (yes, pray) this doesn't go to the Supreme Court,with its Roman Catholic majority. We already know what devout Papist Clarence Thomas thinks of sex.

Lincredible

No way can I post about Mitt Romney, or Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Barack Obama, birth control insurance, or CPAC.

No there is only one subject, one person, one phenomenon in the world, and that of course is ...

JEREMY LIN

Off With His Head

I'm getting really sick of this birth control thing.

An infinitesimal number of Americans are really against birth control. Which is not to say Joe Biden, who knows whereof he speaks, is wrong about the potential political damage this stuff could do to his boss. That's why tomorrow Obama will modify the administration's position to conform to Hawaii's refusal clause which lets religious employees to get a cheap policy of their own if they want the pill.

This of course will not mollify the bishops. Nor will it quiet Richard the Lionhearted. The Crusader Santorum said today that Obama is leading us back to the French Revolution, to the guillotine.

I think this means Santorum is a monarchist, which is odd because he was holding up a copy of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, President Diderot was announcing a mortgage settlement that was woefully small but still on the side of the angels and does not preclude further action against mortgage fraud. Half the attorneys general who forced the settlement are republicans, so Romney will not oppose it. And when other suits are brought against mortgage servers, he won't be able to oppose them either.

The Empty Suit

Or, if you like, the empty jacket and jeans.

Clearly, Mitt Romney's problem is that he's got nothing to say. And when he speaks, he sounds like a ventriloquist's dummy. It's so bad that Rick Santorum, God's messenger, is now being celebrated as "authentic," even by mainstream commentators.

Today, the President's economic team revised their economic forecast and hazarded that unemployment could be under 8% by the end of the year, which begins to erode WMR's only strength.

Romney's trying to get on the Right side of the overheated Catholic birth control issue. Trouble is, Saint Rick and The Grandiose One point out that in moderate Massachusetts, almost the same rule on contraceptive coverage is state law. Besides which, Obama's going to find a way to get around his own law in order to patch things up with the bishops and papist pundits like Chris Matthews and E.J. Dionne.

As this daffy GOP donnybrook continues, Mitt's I-don't-care-about-poor- people, Cayman Islands stash really rich guy persona gets pushed way to the right, as Romney tries to be more pro-life, more anti-Medicare, more anti-government than Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich combined. Which, unfortunately for him, nobody believes. So the real rightists hate him cause they know he's not one of them. But the moderates hate him because he insists on running way to the right of his entire history.

By the time he gets to Tampa (if he gets to Tampa), Willard Mitt's constituency could be at the vanishing point.

Waterboarding Mitt

He may not be drowning, but WMR is certainly starting to look like gasping for air.

I suppose Romney is still the putative candidate, but now that Newt is at least temporarily stranded on the moon, Saint Rick has performed his Midwest Miracle (for Santorum, it's all about miracles)stamping himself as the true representative of the radical right, the rightful -- and righteous -- keeper of the Tea Party flame. And God is on his side.

Now Mitt's going to have to sling mountains of mud at Santorum. But he can't trash Saint Rick from his natural place in the middle. He's going to have to attack from the right of the Pious One. Which is pretty damn hard. Perhaps available ammunition is the former senator's lobbying. Trouble is Santorum doesn't look like a Washington insider.

Ron Paul finished second in MN. Talk about insult to injury.

PS Santorum keeps faulting O. for "thinking he's better" than the rest of us. Uppity, i.e.

Saint Rick's Crusade

Polls suggest Rick the Holy might do well tomorrow, especially in Minnesota, and especially among Catholics. He's going all out against Obama on the issue of obliging certain RC institutions to cover birth control. This has been represented as an issue of religious freedom, but for the worshipful candidate, it's about birth control, to which he is totally opposed. He thoroughly regretted the Komen reversal.

But here's one for you:

"The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical. And that is what the perception is by the American Left who hates Christendom."

Rick Santorum said that in South Carolina last month. In the United States in the 21st Century.

Madonna LIII

Well she looks good for her age. I couldn't tell about her singing. I thought the spectacle was impressive but silly.

The game was exciting. Both quarterbacks lived up to their billing. I hate Belichick and Brady the same way I hate the New york Yankees, so I'm glad the Giants won.

Another loss for Mitt Romney. Which is thee only thing I have to say about politics today.

Jer-e-my Jer-e-my Jer-e-my

No question who's the most important person in the world tonight, at least until Brady or Manning takes over tomorrow night.

he is Jeremy Lin, point guard of the New York Knickerbockers. Lin, unique Asian-American in the NBA and unique graduate of Harvard University, who has played scarce minutes since the Knicks picked him off after he was waived by the Houston Rockets, tonight sscored 25 points in 35 minutes and had the Madison Square Garden chanting his name as he led his team to a breakaway win over the New Jersey Nets.

Meanwhile in Las Vegas, Mitt Romney blew out the Nevada Caucus, almost doubling Newt Gingrich's totals. Newt was just about tied by Ron Paul,but still managed to drape himself in inevitability by divine right. Rick Santorum was lapped by the field and for some unknown reason continued to hold on by his fingertips.

Mitt began his standard stump speech with an acknowledgment of the new jobs/unemployment numbers, which he dismissed very unconvincingly.

Surprises & Reversals

Komen for the Cure got hit by the awesome power of social media and backed off its attempt to cut off its grants to Planned Parenthood.

Of course the Papist candidates turned this into an anti-abortion attack on Planned Parenthood, which is, of course much more about birth control than abortion.

Of course, this puts Mitt Romney in a box, since he doesn't want to side with Rick and Newt and against all those women voters. But neither does Mitt want to back Planned Parenthood. He would prefer to say nothing, but that's hard with the media both restless and relentless. Watch for another unforced error.

Romney also got blindsided by today's positive jobs numbers, whish even diehard skeptics applauded.

The New York Times couldn't be too happy with today's article -- the very day the optimistic report came out -- predicting that it would show a grim outlook for jobs. "Stagnant" the Times business fron headlined its forecast. Granted, most commentators called the report surprising or even "shocking." Still, the Times reporter seemed to do no reporting. Speculative thumbsuckers are a dangerous type of journalism.

Reality Show

Newt got faked out. His people thought Donald Trump was going to back the man who was willing to join his failed debate. But, no, Romney is the Donald's choice. Today, in that same Trump hotel where the doomed debate was to have been held, the Celebrity famous for firing people on TV, endorsed the candidate famous for firing people in the real world.

Which really debases the word "endorsement."

He Can't Help It

I get it Mitt. You didn't mean to say what it sounded like. Of course I care about the poor, but they're okay. The government is taking care of them. Of course, I'm not really for that either, but for the sake of argument, let's park the poor people on the side so I can say I'm concentrating on the middle income people.

Now here's the thing: Mitt Romney really isn't concerned with the very poor and Mitt Romney really does like to fire people. His words were taken out of context, but he uttered them because that's what he's all about. Mitt Romney has no experience of poor people, but tons of experience of firing people.

He knows whereof he speaks.