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Michigan: Bloggin from a Battleground State
Aug 2k4
Propaganda for the Dark-Age Gang
There is a disturbing pattern at work in ersatz-reconstruction Iraq. We are not finishing the job.
In general, we didn't finish the planning and execution for a stable post-war Iraq, hence, there's still a war going on.
Specifically, we haven't sufficiently smashed Sunni and Shia militant insurgencies, much to the chagrin of most Iraqis, many of whom are afraid to commit to the US-sponsored plan. I'm still convinced that Iraq will be a great vacation spot in a few to five years, but we are dragging out the pain to be endured during the interim. When an armed insurgency wishes to defeat you, you should, if you can, defeat them first. American troops, for whatever reason have not closed the deal. They didn't do it in Fallujah (seat of the Sunni insurgency), which is now the epicenter of a rather large lawless region. Same with Najaf, or wherever Muqtada al-Sadr's dipshit thugs-of-the-people have raised hell before...or later.
A pessimist would look at this situation and say we're doomed, that every step back we take now means another two or three that we'll have to gain down the road if Iraq is to be what it wants to be...and Iraqi's do not want to be the spitting image of the freakin' Taliban, trust me on this, or simply open your eyes and read widely...anyway. Covering all the ground with an increasingly peeved and revolting population will make what is possible today impossible two years down the road.
The optimistic take on this, and the one I subscribe to, says that Iraq's own nascent armed forces are getting better every day and will, in the end, be the proverbial knights in shining kevlar-armor. While they did a piss-poor job against Sunni insurgents in Fallujah in April, they performed much better a few months later in Najaf-- they were often front-line troops during the three-week battle against the Mahdi militia of al-Sadr (fils). This scrape took place, primarily, in a massive cemetery and along narrow ancient streets that snake around the sacred shrine of Imam Ali, in short, a hellish urban battle without respite for weeks. The Iraqi army took the lead and did very well. In the long term, these folks will either secure or lose long-term stability and prosperity for Iraq. I'm betting that they will, but there's gonna be some serious nasty in the interim.
Because we did not snuff out the Sunni insurgency in Fullujah nor the Sadr's hissy-fit in Najaf, jihadists everywhere are crowing that we are weak and scared, and that once we're hit good and hard a few more times, we will cave. Utter bullshit, of course, nine-eleven should have clued them in on that, but these cats are not momma earth's best and brightest, so forgive them if the logic behind their actions smack of mean-spirited idiocy, cause that's what it is.
Unfortunately, that will not stop Sunni and Shia insurgents from tossing some hail-marys to grab their power, after all it is nothing but a power play, doesn't matter what you use for a cloak. There will be yet another showdown, and the Iraqi army will have to end it, so once and for all that 11th century radical Islam has no place in the cradle of civilization. If Sadr requests another showdown a few from now, Iraq's finest, I think, will wipe him and his boys off the planet.
Then we can start bringing our troops home.
Or send them into Iran...I guess that depends on who wins the election.
- k
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The Slow Burn of Najaf
Maybe I'm missing something, but, when you negotiate peace deals with extra-governmental killers, not to mention fanatical killers who are financially supported by your historical enemy, and not to mention with fanatical killers who have already reneged on numerous cease-fires and peace deals, then, are you not putting off the inevitable?
For Sure.
We will all hear from Sadr again, and in a way we will not like. Meanwhile, it looks like Najaf and its holy sites will be spared further defilement, and I suspect that's what has motivated the latest shift of events.
Now, I'm glad that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has brokered an end to the violence in Najaf. Fresh off some time in the UK for heart treatments, and dealing with more b.s. than any 73-year-old respected senior cleric should have to deal with, Sistani obviously wants to see an end to the bloodshed in his neighborhood. Sistani is slightly less concerned with who started what. He also kept quiet for a long time during the shootout, hoping, I think, that Iraqi and US troops would finish a very dirty job and hopefully not blow the Imam Ali Shrine to dust and spark another level of madness (though at this point I have some difficulty picturing what that would look like...one can only shake their fist in frustration so violently). History at any rate will regard Ali al-Sistani as a noble cleric-- an erudite quietist who believes in the separation of church and state. His primary concerns lie primarily with protecting his people from obliteration. I can not imagine how horrifying it must be for this man to watch and hear about scores of people being blown to shreds, daily, for several weeks running, in his back yard. I'm sure that he personally knew many of the maimed and deceased. In Sistani's mind, and he does strike me as an optimist, it's better to find a way to stop the madness in and around this holiest of holy shrines, NOW, and deal with The-Human-Cancer-Also-Known-As-Muqtada-al-Sadr later...in a different city, under different rules. Maybe that's what he's thinking.
I've advocated in this space, and to friends and foes alike, that Sadr needs to find prison or paradise, the sooner the better. I still believe this, more than ever. It's a long and sad lesson that humanity never seems to learn until the mess is sufficiently large to threaten its entirety. That is: do not appease thugs and criminals with a political bent. These people do not reform, they do not change stripes, and they don't buy into the program, and they most damn sure do not want to share power. Muqtada al-Sadr doesn't give a rat's ass about parliament or fair elections. His views on religion are quite different than Sistani's. Sadr wants Islam in everything, all the time.
Sadr has been sucking on the Iranian sugar-teat for months, maybe longer, and that is why his imbecile movement still has legs (Iran's government, by the way, is quite fond of ubiquitous Islam as well). Sadr's Madhi fighters, almost all poor, unskilled, and unemployed, are earning a modest paycheck, courtesy of the Iranians, for the trouble of being the messy end of Marine target practice. Since last October, thousands have died for Sadr's bluster...because Marines tend to be pretty good shots.
So, here's to hoping that Sadr moves on to peaceful politics and forsakes the whole madness of armed uprisings...for this is what he has just promised, for the umpteenth time. This time, though, he has promised to the most powerful Shia cleric in Iraq. I wonder if that'll make a difference.
Doubt it.
War On Terror, The Russian Way
When two Russian jetliners blew up simultaneously a couple days back, I thought, immediately, that the Chechnyans have fully lost it...they must pray for death.
No one does violence and misery like the Russians. If al-Queda had blown up the Kremlin instead of the World Trade Center, the Middle East would today, from Cairo to Kabul, be a smoking ruin. Russian military doctrine has no place for precision and care with respect to the civilian population. If I'm a terrorist, Russia is the very last country on the planet I want to screw with, unless my goal is the apocolypse...oh yeah, that's right.
Vladimir Putin is a judo master and former KGB honcho. It's easy to picture him many years ago, breaking some poor dissident into pieces as an initiation rite. He has threatened to castrate mouthy reporters, and pines for some of the orderliness of the old Soviet empire...yike-ski!
The US must be at some level happy with this, because full Russian participation means a faster remedy to the war on terror, unless it means a quicker launching pad to World War IV. One thing is for sure, whenever and where ever Russia is involved in armed conflict, the bodycount skyrockets.
Yeah bro, get your war on....pandora's box all opened and up in ya.
- k
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The Dark Cycle
This election cycle would be more depressing if it were not for the farcical nature of the whole thing. From what I hear and read, presidential campaigns have been depressing, basically, since 1960. Even then, the luster of Camelot was so because the media wasn't quite as pervasive, invasive, and banal. Remember, Kennedy's behavior in office was almost certainly no worse than Clinton's. That's what the press cares about regarding politics, or anything else: who is sleeping with who.
How utterly boring. If sex stories and car bombs are what it takes for the mass media to feel their mojo, then no further explanation is necessary except by those who keep these assheads on the air by watching their adolescent-with-a-boner content.
Thus far in Campaign 2k4, the sex stories, if there are any good ones out and about, are taking a back seat to the war stories...of the distant past. This makes sense on one level, because we are always reminded that we're at war and that we have bad people to smite, and it's important that we pick the best smiter. It's also become cliche that military service doesn't mean jack-poo regarding one's fitness to lead the nation into battle (i.e. Lincoln; FDR)
The Bush campaign, through a front called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, is carpet-bombing Kerry on the validity of his wounds and his medals. This of course is in retaliation to Kerry questioning Bush's National Guard Service. Well, okay, there are two important things to take from this.
One, as a campaigner, Bush is very very good at painting moderate opponents as self-serving waffling monsters. He's done it to Ann Richards (for Texas governor), John McCain (for President 2k), and now he's doing it to Kerry. Two: Kerry isn't really being attacked for what he did in Vietnam. He is being attacked for what he said after Vietnam, when he denounced the whole enterprise as low-brow barbarianism, and tossed someone else's medals over someone else's fence. Kerry is being attacked because he's come back at a convenient time and promoted himself as a war-hero...I would NOT want this guy as my lawyer. But hey, I can't recall the last successful politician who was unstained by hypocrisy, so c'est la vie.
Kerry is fighting back against this stuff and fighting hard. He's legitimately pissed, since he's been under enemy fire, which I hear is quite a surreal experience and not the kind of thing you like to have questioned...it's a suckerpunch at character. However, Kerry started it. Sad but true, he started ragging on Bush's military service, which occured almost 20 years before the man put away the coke spoon and found Jesus. What was Kerry thinking? Nobody cares what a politician did 30 years ago. Our memories don't stretch that far. Are there not enough things to attack Bush just based on his time in the here and now as the effing President!!??
Environment; Diplomacy; Irresponsible Tax Cuts and Government Deficits out the ass exceeded only by Private Household deficits out the ass; Shit Communicator; Flip-Flopper on Free Trade for Political Gain; this list could go on. Kerry should focus his attacks on issues derived straight from Bush's time as President, nothing more, because nothing more is needed. There is soooo much ammunition there.
We need to stop revising history and look at what lies before us. The next president will have to deal with Terrorism, the rise of China, and the possible disintegration of Europe (seriously-- this needs it's own long essay). There's also a maddening gaggle of environmental and educational issues to tackle. Each topic just named warrants many hours of concerted debate, you know, looking to the future and deciding what needs to be done.
It's going to get uglier, unwatchably so, and we'll all have to take a good look in the mirror, because we share the blame. If we feed the monster, it grows...marketing types use a different expression, but I've purged that crap from my mind. Anyway.
Kerry's campaign better shape up pronto, otherwise we get four more years of W., and that will be that. Where IS that reset button. I want to play a new game.
- k
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Fighting for Cash Prizes
There was a line from one of Sadr's Mahdi fighters a couple days back that slayed me: "We are better soldiers than the Americans," he said, "we fight for our faith, they only fight for money."
Well, yes, that's the point. Money buys weapons and body armor and night-vision thingies...not to mention medical advances and university educations. In fact, we put God on our money. Look at the eye at the top of the pyramid, not to mention the script.
God doesn't care how you worship it/her/him. Unfortunately, I am not sure what percentage of the planet is cool with that last sentence. I suspect we're gonna find out one way or another.
Meanwhile, reports indicate that Sadr's Mahdi fighters have been softened up enough for Iraqi troops to storm the Imam Ali Shrine in Najef.
Of course, reports now say Sadr isn't there, some say he is...the squirrely bastard. Can we just send a crew of SEALs to deal with him under cover of darkness? I doubt we are not going to take him alive, and frankly, it's not worth the trouble. If my neighbor is lobbing mortar rounds onto my porch and toolshed, I'm not going to negotiate, and I'm not going to sue...I'm going to call up my friends and we're going to reduce my neighbor and his property to rubble. So it should be with Sadr, just like it was for Charles Whitman and the Hussien Brothers. Sadr is a bigger dirtbag than Arafat. Most Iraqi's hate him, and even Sistani is calling him out. Sadr has had his chances to join the political process and if he retains his freedom, be assured that nothing good will come of it.
Meanwhile, this stuff is giving the oil market bad nerves. Crude is approaching $50 a barrel, which is funding a lot of terrorists, not to mention making Russia rich: an autocratic and powerful Russian State...where have I heard such talk before? It really is all about money, and if you're still one of those cats who whine, "it's the root of all evil," fine. It is also the root of most good, like technology (which can also wreck lives). WE judge whether these tools are used for good or ill.
You think Sadr has a vision for developing Iraq's infrastructure - education, industry, technology, not to mention democratic freaking traditions? You think Sadr has a plan to make Iraq wealthy, healthy, and wise?
Get that bastard...and move on to rebuilding that shattered country.
selah
- k
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Pro Mover & General Bastard Co.
Well, all good vacations need to be cut short, no?
Right as I reached the shores of Lake Michigan last Thursday afternoon, my mobile went off. It was the dispatcher from American Van Lines...the company charging me six-freaking-dollars per cubic foot to move my possessions from California to Michigan. Hey, I had 2k burning a hole in my pocket, so why not, right?
The dispatcher told me that my goods would arrive on either the 15th or 16th, and that someone would call approximately 24-hours before drop-off. Of course, just a week ago, I was told that there was no way my stuff was reaching Michigan before the 20th, so I planned that fishing and camping expedition that was going to take up a full week or so. Still with me?
It is the 16th as I type, and no one has called. This means either that my stuff will soon arrive unannounced, or that it will arrive late...just like it was picked up late.
Welcome to the moving business folks, criminals need not feel embarrassed about their past actions...we're all trying the best we can, eh?
I may have to write a legit essay on this. More later.
Staff Handling
I wasn't going to write a peep about the ex-Hill staffer and her x-rated blog that has embarrassed a gang of lecherous politicians and earned a twenty-something slut a six-figure book deal. For one thing, anyone who is at all surprised that legions of Senators, House Members and their Aides (irregardless of marital status) screw every young thing they can reach is so lost in the modern world that it may be best to find the nearest cliff and proceed straight off the damn thing. Also, anyone who finds themselves shocked at 20-somethings who screw everything in sight, talk trash about it to their friends, etc. etc. has either never been a 20-something, or is definitely someone I don't wanna hang with...as such a mindset indicates too much sheltering and a multitude of other social and maybe physical maladies. So, yeah, I was going to keep my thoughts to myself because this is not shocking, it's kid's stuff. Bring some roofies and a chainsaw into the mix and NOW we got a story.
But the yak-yak has gone into overdrive and the obviousness of total truth eludes the dipshit pundits once again: our society has always always always been like this. We have always been a clutch of wonton heavy-blood-in-the-loins sex-freaks. The only thing that has changed in the last forty years is the revealed truth that sexual repression often leads to more dire situations, both micro and macro, than promiscuous behavior-- AIDS, pregnancy, poverty, and shunning aside. Sorry, I'm being flip. It's Monday, and these jerk-pieces from American Van Lines have grinched me a little. I digress.
The wonton staffer in question, Miss Jessica Cutler, 26, has a gaggle of current sex partners, including some who were married, and she was blogging her efforts with all of them, meant for the eyes of her friends only. Well, this reveals something about Miss Cutler's intelligence, since posting lurid info is a great way to attract attention: a.) net spiders love that kind of thing, and x-rated tales are easily found by all search engines, since people want to read them, since we the people, as I've just mentioned are always dreaming of the perfect fuck. So it is. b.) any half-bright plebe with a yang for posting sensitive information online, say for the perusal of friends only, need only read up on security protocols for an hour or so to, say, password protect the naughty tales of boffin' up on the Hill. Whatever, Miss Cutler is obviously not a Rhodes Scholar, and there's a fine double-wide with her name on it when the sagging becomes noticeable to the near-sighted. Regarding that side of the karma fence, no foul there.
However, what about these married dudes who were screwing this young thing in motel rooms and underneath park benches? It's the oldest gig on this Hill-- middle-aged men with a smidgen of power and or prestige getting it on with half-bright mail-clerks who may or may not understand their diminishing worth with every conquest...cause let's be real here, you are NOT going to bring a woman like Miss Cutler to meet the parents in the Hamptons, especially not now...not if she can't keep that stuff quiet. Hey, do what you gotta do, but be discreet for the love of god. But what about the older men who, having been around ten to thirty years longer than Miss Cutler, might have, oh I don't know, kept their eyes open? These are the kind of cynical subdividers I dealt with all the goddamned time during my five-plus years in DC. While our Nation's Capital has a fair number of honest hardworking do-gooder's in the mold of the late Paul Wellstone or Patrick Monyihan, at least half of everyone who wears a suit five to seven times a week on or near the Hill is so toxic with avarice, cynicism, and pedestrian intelligence that one should don a lead fucking suit for ANY interaction at all. At some point, Miss Cutler will mature and feel foolish for this streak of youthful craziness, and maybe she'll pat herself on the back that she was able to score some cash from the whole thing.
We do get the government we deserve. That's the cool thing about democracy. It's just now it seems no one can keep secrets anymore. THAT, my friends, will bring a fallout.
- k
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Pulling stuff together for some R&R in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and a little fishing expedition on Lake Michigan. Good for brain-clearance...and who doesn't need that every once in awhile. I tend to overdose on Neil Young, Wilco, The Allman Brothers, and the like when I'm a long way from a proper theater house and or sushi joint. I keep thinking that someday I'll get sick of these acts-- stuff I've been listening to since I scored my first walkman early in jr. high. Most folks acquire a more sophisticated musical palette as they age, but it just ain't happening for me. I still love pretty much everything I loved in the 8th grade. Am I stunted, or did I plug into the right stuff at an early age. Does it matter?
Anyway, Michigan's U.P. is rural, bordering on desolate-- many trees and streams, and fish and animals, lashed across a lush and rocky high-hill / low-moutain landscape. It's nice this time of year, but there's hardly anyplace to go swimming. Years ago I worked up the courage to rush into Lake Superior, up to my knees to say I did it, and thought I was done for. It was so damn cold. My sister of course went swimming for an hour or two as our parents mocked me for being a wuss...but it was a gentle mocking. I am, after all, very good with firearms.
That's a joke folks, don't call the police, I have no buried secrets to speak of.
The locals up around the U.P. are awesome of course, and the females tend to be of Nordic Stock and quite easy on the eyes, not to mention that they can chop a cord of firewood between cooking meals. There has to be a market for that...utter competence never goes out of style. Regarding tourism, there's more of it in the UP than some folks want to see, but in relation to just about every other nice place in the USA, it's a very mellow place. Comparing the open spaces in the UP to, say, Zion or Yosemite or Shenandoah is besides the point. Yosemite is slightly more stunning than the Porcupine Mountains or Isle Royal, slightly, but what's the use of soaking in natural beauty if all the while you feel like it's asses to elbows in a crowded museum? Screw that. I want to go camping in a place where the odds are better than even that for thirty miles in every direction, the bears and wolves outnumber the humans, and hey, like I mentioned, I'm good with firearms and I'll have something handy in case something decides it wants to eat me.
But of course I'd rather co-exist in peace, that's always my first choice /option.
The topper, of course, is that half the hamlets up there have coffee shops with Wi-Fi hotspots. That just kills me...you can never get away, and that's fine too, illusion works well enough.
- k
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Ridiculoid pt Infinitum
All too much, muchachos. Iraq is sprinting into another one of it's freakouts...like the insane girlfriend with a trust fund but with no clue how to right her ship, not to mention a well-meaning but abusive boyfriend mucking things up. It's a tough thing to take, especially when you know the overall intentions are good. I've come to think that intentions don't mean doo-doo. It's all about results (tis why I'm a sports fanatic). That's yet another reason why I'll never understand how Bush became president (thanks, Supreme Court), his results, meaning what he actually did during his first forty-something years on the planet don't add up to jack: mediocre businessman, student, athlete, etc. Christ, shouldn't we expect more from our effing Presidente?
Anyway, the election can not come soon enough, and at that point we will really know what is what, because if Dubbya somehow manages to score a re-election...let me be clear...we'll Deserve Everything We Get.
I can't stand Kerry. He is, as has been mentioned, a douchebag and serious equivocator. For a chief executive, there is such a thing as too many shades of grey, and Kerry represents that. However, to err on that side is preferable, to me at least, to the black and white Jesus sent me here to make the world right righteous mediocrity of our current War President. Bush would be a fine running partner and drinking buddy, but he's a shit president.
Somehow, despite an avalanche of good contrarian information, I'm still in favor of our Iraq adventure, but the experience is humbling. I'm in favor because I think the long-term alternatives are worse, and that's enough for me...not that I enjoy picking between terrible and impossible.
Meanwhile, I still say that Sadr needs to go, prison or dirtnap, I don't care. War means tough calls. The general population of Iraq feels the same way. We need to clear this stuff up quick becuase the general population is also tiring of the choas that continues in their country. Regarding security, The Unitied States is on the clock...if Iraq is still a cluster 18 months from now, meaning as it is now, the cause will be lost and maybe I buy a fat farm in rural Michigan and hunker down for twenty years or so.
Lovin' The Localization
It's hard to remember that the greater world is being ripped apart while hanging around here in rural Michigan. When I'm away from my puter and or the tele, I'm damn near in Eden-- nice isolated swimming holes, random coffee shops in the sticks with hot-spots, nice nice people, all wrapped in 80 degree sunshine. My past and future is California, but this is nice. I can not emphasize that enough...I now understand why some smart people shun technology, and further, why smart Amish folks stay Amish even after being immersed in the modern world. There is most certainly an appeal to this, and I imagine I'll grow quite tired of it one day. In fact, I'm planning a little trip to the Eastern Seaboard right now...and we all know how hoppin' that NYC / DC corridor is these days. A party on every block.
- k
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Yeah fool! Found an awesome coffee shop in Flushing, MI, with kick ass mochas, regular coffee and a fat-piped hot-spot. A good place for a little blogging before I head out into the glorious morning and find a quiet lake for laps and bit of sun. Not bad, kiddies...not California, but not too damn bad.
I have the noise-cancellation headphones on, with old-school Primal Scream belting out their e-rollin' fantasies from back yonder in, hell, when was that, 1991? I'm not going to look it up cause it's not that important. If you're reading this and you were between 16 and 24 in 1991, and into Screamadelica, or Happy Mondays, or weekend trips to Chicago to catch the new Nitzer Ebb remixes at Medusa's, then the flashbacks are welcome respites from the weird shit happening all across our faux civilized land. And yes, I know that there was always the weirdness on every level, but it seemed, in hindsight, less of a drain on my karmic energy...and age doesn't have that much to do with it. I'm in better shape now than in 91, by simple virtue of what I choose to throw into my body.
Nuff of the diary-type shiesah.
Muqtada al-Sadr has got to go. Sorry. He is not a man, he is a stupidly violent fanatic. His followers are similarly stupid fanatical thugs. No one with an IQ over 80 (aside from the UK Guardian and the NY Times) can stand this asshole. Sadr has gone back and forth between calling for truce and rebellion three times now: October 2k3, April 2k4, and this week. Look, if I pick a fight with the schoolyard badass and get knocked around, I move on, find a different spread of turf. If said schoolyard badass suggests we can co-exist in a business / political relationship as long as I act LESS THUGGISH, maybe I accept, maybe I leave town and find another benefactor...but I do not flip-flop with shit like violent rebellion every three months or so, just because I need the goddamned attention.
Sadr's gripes are not about the freaking occupation either. He is being supported by the Iranian Mullahcracy to help instill an Islamist government in Iraq. We see what 25 years of Islamic rule has done for Iran. If they had launched a revolution in 1979 for capitalist democracy instead, it safe to say that Iran would be a borderline G8 nation now. Anyone who doubts that, please contact me directly and I'll explain...it's prolly an essay that needs writing anyway. I digress.
As it is, Iran is a very long way from democracy (and sometimes so are we), and the manner in which they are trying to influence Iraq pushes nothing forward. Sadr does not have the best interest's of Iraqis in mind. Many educated Iraqis actually think that Sadr has some mental issues, which combines with a suspect level of intelligence is just a couple cards short of some Mullah Uday monster just waiting to emerge. No one wants that kind of trip.
Iraqis and Yanks have given Sadr every opportunity to chill, but he mocks their patience, to screw him...right in to the dirt. Let him wither in prison or his rotting corpse fertilize a nice garden for someone. He has shown what he is about, and thus the world will be better without him.
There are so many Iraqis who want to embrace the genuine chance at stability and prosperity that lies before them. We have got to make sure that works out...under a new American President, of course, but we have to see this through. Have to.
Like Primal Scream said: Come Together
Seriously
- k
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Saw the Tigers and White Sox today with Moms, who's a serious lifelong Tigers fan, and therefore steeled against almost every version of letdown, betrayal, incompetence, and general bad ballin'. The Tigers have been awful for ages. 1984 was a long time ago, and the Tigers haven't sniffed the gold ring since, but at least after several years of suck-ass baseball, their stock is rising. Pudge is bringing along a crew of pitchers who get a little better every week. They will contend next year.
It was free bat day at Comerica Park. Kids 14 and under received a little black ballbat that looked useless as anything but a weapon...but you know, Detroit is a gun city, so folks usually don't bother to start fights with bats, unless it's at a ballgame, and there's a lot of booze in the blood.
Comerica was ~90% full, not bad with Detroit 9 games down in their division. They're basically a .500 team this year and given the Tigers aforementioned recent past, that's cause for celebration.
Alas, the Tigs lost today, 6 to 4, though it wasn't really that close. Ex-Mariner stud Freddy Garcia seriously baffled the home nine for eight innings. Aside from longballs from Brandon Inge and Rondell White, Detroit was nearly listless...hey it happens. Detroit still won the four-game series 3 games to 1. The 100 or so White Sox fans in the park whooped it up like their sorry-ass squad was on their way to ANOTHER championship...the last one happening in 1917, when Reagan was starting the 1st grade.
These Sox fans were weren't flat-out hooligans or anything, but one dude looked a bit like William Ligue, that violent dumbass who charged the field at Comisky and blindsided an umpire during a KC Royals / Sox game a couple years back. Folks say that was an aberration, but damn, you ever spend much time around the south side of Chicago? It makes Detroit look like Paris.
Coming into a Detroit sporting event with enemy colors is pretty brave. Coming to the game talking shit is flat out balls. Now, these people probably lived because they were mouthy at a baseball game, which draws a mellow sort of crowd. However, it was free bat day, and several parents reminded the obnoxious Sox fans of this...and their willingness to take their child's souvenier and use it for violence. But, you know, it's baseball, and violence in stands at baseball games is almost never anything to remember.
Football is different.
Any group stepping into Ford Field strapped with Bears jerseys and a yang for serious shit-talking prolly goes back to Chicago in an impermeable bag...same thing for Lions fans trying to instigate at Soldier Field. Even Moms could tell you that.
Oh, and training camp just started. Football season coming up....oh thank you, thank you, thank you.
- k