Chopp143's Blog

I have to admit that I was very surprised that Question One was defeated by such a large margain.  As a public employee (firefighter) I voted against Question One out of self interest.  As a home owner I also voted against Question One because of the added tax burden it would have placed on people who own their own homes.  I understand that Prop 2 1/2 would have limited property tax increases but I expect that if Question One had passed the Legislature would have changed it to allow cities and towns to raise lost local aid.  Eliminating the income tax would have eased the burden on all those who work but would have placed a larger share of the burden on homeowners.  In the end I think that people understood that while the Legislature needs to wake up and listen to the voters, Question One was surgery by hatchet.

Now that Barack Obama is the new President-Elect, speculation on the makeup of his administration will begin with possible political repercussions in Massachusetts.  Will Senator John Kerry be offered and accept a Cabnet position??  This would start a feeding frenzy of activity.  Would we then see a Congressional seat open up as the likes of Rep. Stephen Lynch, Ed Markey or others vie to replace Kerry?  Will the Republican Party focus all of its' rescources to get Mitt Romney elected as a replacement for our Junior Senator?  Our Governor has stated many times he is not interested in leaving the State House for Washington but if he is offered a high ranking job in the new administration will he stay true to his word?  With Senator Ted Kennedy's health issue hanging over him how different will the Massachusetts political landscape look in the near future?  It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

Putting aside how one views the U.S. involvement in Iraq, I find it disturbing that while U.S. taxpayers are on the hook for approximately 48 billion dollars for the reconstruction of Iraq's infrastructure, Iraq is sitting on approximately 79 billion dollars in oil revenue.  This should be unacceptable to all Americans.  Our economy is ailing under the weight of a massive deficit and Iraq watches the American taxpayer pour billions into rebuilding their country while they are awash in money.  Lets start spending our tax dollars rebuilding our infrastructure and let the Iraqis rebuild their own.

News that Illegal immigrant Andre Martins was shot and killed by a Cape Cod Police Officer has drawn outrage from the Brazilian community and other advocates for illegals. While tragic, the fact remains that if you fail to stop for a police officer and then try to run him down with you vehicle you will most likely be shot.  This is not about discrimination against immigrants, it is an example of someone who broke the law on many levels and suffered the consequences for his actions.  When you break the law you deserve punishment and if you attempt to kill a police officer you will suffer a harsh and justified penalty.

How interesting that news of the supposed death threats against the Speaker of the House are just now being reported in the media.  Nice job Sal, play the victim and hope the masses will forget about you shady dealings.  This man's arrogance apparently knows no bounds.  He must think that most of the Commonwealth's citizens still beleive in the tooth fairy.  Impeachment of this character would be too good, he should be in jail!!

With apologies to man's best friend, I have come to the conclusion that Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew is a dog.  Not since Tony Eason was on the scene in Foxboro have Boston sports fans had player with as much unused talent.  This guy takes himself out of the lineup everytime he gets a slight twinge.  This has gone down to be the biggest blunder of Theo Epstiens regime.  Let's just buy him a dress and move him to the hostess position at the EMC Club.

Shame on the Red Sox for inducting Mo Vaughn into their Hall of Fame.  Named in the Mitchell report he is a disgrace to the game and should be barred from such honors because of his underhanded and illegal activities.

Maybe it is a function of turning 50, but I find myself getting a little more cranky with each passing year.  Some random thoughts about things that tick me off:

1.   People who insist on carrying on a cell phone conversation at the same time they are trying to order a coffee at Dunkin Donuts.

2 .People who wait until they reach the bank teller to fill out their paperwork rather then taking care of it prior to getting line.

3. People who throw their trash on the sidewalk when there is a trash barrel within sight.

4. People who try to jam themselves onto a subway car before the people inside can exit.

5. Fans who need to get up in the middle of play to get a beer refill rather than waiting until there is a break in the action.

6. People who stop in the middle of the intersection and cause grid lock because they are so self important.

7.  People who are too lazy to brush the snow off their entire vehicle and then get on the interstate doing 75 mph so the wind will blow it off.

8.  People who stand on the street corner trying to get me to take a personality test.  I have a news flash for them, I DON'T HAVE A PERSONALITY, so stopping asking.

9.  People who let their dogs walk loose and use the sidewalk for a toilet.

10.  People who complain about other people's stupid habits. (I am looking in the mirror as I type this)  Guilty as charged!!

The news that CVS has won approval to open health clinics staffed by nurse practioners seemed to be a step in the right direction in getting basic health problems (cold, flu, ear infrections ect..) taken care of in a non hospital setting.  Apparently Mayor Menino finds this unacceptable.  Too often on a daily basis, people with non life threatening health problems use 911 for transport to a local Emergency Room for treatment.  This ties up valuable resources that are intended to be there for true medical emergencies and needlessly overcrowds our ERs.  This type of walk in clinic is only a small step in addressing our overburdened health care system, but at least it is a start.  Mayor Menino should concentrate his efforts on cleaning streets, fighting crime, educating the children and leave the public health issues to the professionals.

I just finished reading about the latest attempt by the Boston Police to stem the violence in Boston neighborhoods by seeking parents permission to have the Police search their teenager's rooms without a warrant to find weapons.  At first it seems like a reasonable attempt to be proactive and certainly would do more good than candle light vigils.  I guess then the caffine from my morning coffee kicked in and I actually started to see how ridiculous an idea this is.  Why should the police be the ones to search these teenage rooms??  What about the parents stepping up to the plate and search their own teenagers room themselves???  Parents need to parent.....this means if you suspect your child has an illegal weapon you confront them, search their room  ect....

I am not sure when, although I believe Tony LaRussa and Bill James had a big part in it, major league starting pitchers became so fragile that they could no longer pitch in 4 man rotations, needed strict pitch counts with setup men and closers to finish games for them.  If todays major leaguers are better trained athletes with the most modern facilities, equipment and medical staffs available to them then why can't the pitch more often and longer??  I looked back at two of the Red Sox most beloved starters and found the following  1967 Jim Longborg started 39 games completed 16 and won 22 while pitching in a 4 man rotation and totalled 283 innings pithced.  Even more astounding was his back to back performances in the World Series when in games 2 & 5 he threw two complete games winning both while allowing only 4 hits and 1 earned run in 18 innings.  Jumping forward to 1974, 75 & 76 we had Luis Tiant who started 38, 35 & 38 games completing 25, 18 & 19 winning 22, 18 & 21 and pitching 311, 260 & 279 innings.  In the 1975 World Series he pitched complete games in games 1 and 4.  In game four he threw over 150 pitches to help the Sox even the series.  These types of performances were expected from a teams top line pitcher and now suddenly better trained athletes are overworked if they throw more than 100 pitches or reach 200 innings in a season.  STOP BABBYING these guys....let them throw, run and throw some more.  If you train an athlete to only throw 6 innings or 100 pitches that is all you will get out them. Throw away the computer printouts and all the other BS charts and graphs and lets get back to baseball!!!!!

Once again one of our super smart, artistic college students causes a security scare by walking through Logan Airport with supposed "art".  Luckily for her the State Police at Logan showed proper restraint and did not over react.  Now the Courts will decide what is the proper punishment for our intellectual offender.  I would respectfully submit that she be given a broom and trash bag and sentenced to Harvard Square trash patrol for the remainder of her MIT education.  Have her spend one hour everyday including holidays and weekends picking up the trash that litters our public ways.  Maybe if we started to get back to basic disipline and took some of these supposedly intelligent individuals and showed them what respect and hard work are we would see some changes in our society.  Too many pampered children filling our halls of education who have no respect for anyone but themselves.