(1) Rachel Maddow hit the nail on the head in her MSNBC opinion piece regarding Congress and its push for Obama to do something about Syria. My favorite section (of many favorite sections):
The dirty little secret is that much of Congress was content to have no say in this matter. When a letter circulated demanding the president seek lawmakers' authorization, most of the House and Senate didn't sign it - some were willing to let Obama do whatever he chose to do, some didn't want the burden of responsibility. Members spent the week complaining about the president not taking Congress' role seriously enough, confident that their rhetoric was just talk.For too long, Congress has been mired in its own personal gridlock hell - a gridlock hell much of its own doing. Something like 40 attempts to overturn Obamacare plays into Einstein's definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Now there's a crisis that has been brewing in the Middle East for months - years, really - and Obama is telling the legislative assembly they need to own up and do something constructive.It spoke to a larger problem: for far too many lawmakers, it's so much easier to criticize than govern. In recent years, members of Congress have too often decided they're little more than powerful pundits, shouting from the sidelines rather than getting in the game.
It's one of the angles to today's news that's so fascinating - Obama isn't just challenging Congress to play a constructive role in a national security matter, the president is also telling lawmakers to act like adults for a change. They're federal lawmakers in the planet's most powerful government, and maybe now would be a good time to act like grown-ups who are mindful of their duties.
Honestly, Obama was going to be damned by the Republican Party no matter what he did here. If he chose to do nothing, the GOP would call him out for not being proactive. If he went guns a'blazing, he'd been ripped by Republicans for getting the US involved in another military action overseas and spending money the US doesn't have. By telling Congress to take a stand, he's seen by some as passing the buck. If he bypassed Congress (which is still an option), he ignored the Constitution and having Congressional backing.
Meanwhile, the House and Senate are still on vacation (and have no immediate plans to return to Capitol Hill until next week at the soonest) ... and I don't hear anyone ripping them for playing golf while Obama addresses the issue head-on. At least, not yet.
(2) Began the tedious of grading 11th grader Personal Origin Myth stories. Still trying to figure out how much to weigh silly things like spelling, punctuation, grammar, and lack of paragraph breaks in minimum-350-word-long papers should count in comparison to the creativity most showed in developing their myths. I swear, some of them could be modern reincarnation of Kafka, which is a pity, because I cannot stand reading Kafka and his four-page-long paragraph style of writing. (There's a few where things like "a clear beginning, middle and end" or "a definitive understanding of how an origin myth is supposed to work" or "it would have been nice if they actually listed to me and read the goddamn assignment correctly" may come into play.)
(3) Having said that, there are some pretty cool creation concepts that have been presented, from how the oceans came to be, to why stars shine, to why Area 51 exists, to the existence of Skittles, to why grass is wet in the morning. (I need a second person to read the Area 51 story, since it includes a character named "Gabaman" ... I mean, talk about brownnose city!)
(4) Oh, those base on balls. I'm looking at you, Detroit Tigers. Getting shut out 4-0 to Cleveland at home, despite 11 hits? That's what walking six batters - including three in the top of the 9th, who all scored on a grand slam - is not going to get it done. Magic Number still at 19.
(5) Cleaned the bathtub today. Did it twice, just to make sure I did a somewhat better than half-ass job. I'm such a domestic god, it's scary!
Stupid News of the Day
From Deadline: Hollywood: "Labor Day Box Office: ‘One Direction’ Winning 3-Day Weekend But Will ‘The Butler’ Take 4-Day Holiday?" - One Direction is winning? Really? Not sure if this speaks to the power of teens at the movie theater on holiday weekends, or the lack of creativity and storylines in movies today. Or both.
Weird News of the Day
From The Chicago Tribune: "Man Tasered by cops near music festival was 'naked as the day he was born'" Being tased, then getting taken to the hospital for "observation" and to get bits of car windshield removed from your buttocks is no way to go through life, son.
Florida News of the Day
From The Tampa Bay Times: "Editorial: Governor Phony" - "[Gov. Voldemort] portrays himself as the education governor, the defender of the environment and the advocate for open records. He's the jobs governor, and he has empathy for Floridians without health coverage. Don't be fooled by the packaging. It's a facade that hides reality, and Florida deserves better."
Video of the Day
The best "losing with one second left in the game, we need a miracle play on the kickoff return" footage you'll see all day.
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