Saturday June 5, 2004

Don't you love my optimism? Like this Blog will still be holding my interest in 2005.

Anyway, it was a good news day to comment on (I'll skip Tenant resigning opinion since that was yesterday's news, literally). Reagan died and Smarty Jones lost.

Reflecting on Reagan and his legacy has been building over the last couple days as rumors were leaking from CA that he was nearing the end. I have to say that it has been interesting to compare/contrast our current Pres with RR. They both were looked down upon by the intellectual elite, but at the core I think there is truly a profound difference. RR may have come across as a simpleton, but his core ideas - Ending the Evil Empire, recognizing that government had limits, i.e. shrinking Gov't, including tax reduction, rebuild defense - as it turned out really worked, and were born from years of real life experience.

On the other hand, we have the current President. He is launching ideas that are straight out the Democrat playbook. Unfunded mandates that expand the federal government, like no child left behind. Nice idea, doesn't work in real world. Schools are clearly an area that work more effectively on the local level. I suspect if there are problems with some schools on a national basis it is funding driven rather than what should the children be taught. Medicare expansion through the prescription drug benefit. Incredible expansion of the welfare state, and the budget deficit. And lastly the war in Iraq. The current occupant has ideas that he only communicated after launching this illconceived war in Iraq, i.e. he wants to remake the middle east as a paragon of democratic virtue. Yeah right, like anyone here at home would have signed on for that when he proposed launching the proactive war 18 months ago. I guess he thinks that since Israel is a democracy, than the rest of the middle east can become one. An then he wraps everything in these blatant evangelical Christian overtones, like he is on a mission from God. Very scary. And lastly the sheer incompetence of the senior civilian management coming out of the Pentagon. Between thrusting the urgency of launching the invasion because Saddam had his finger on the button and he was itching to push it, and thereby bypassing diplomacy with Turkey to let our troops launch from there for a northern front, to concluding that the 135,000 number was more than enough to secure a country the size of California. I mean how naive can they be. There were more people at the Belmont Stakes than that, which leads me to my next topic....

Smarty Jones lost his chance for the record books. Truly was sad because everyone wanted him to win and they seemed to need this Seabiscuit-like story to reach completion. My Mom and aunt and sister were all very disappointed, and it seemed that even the winning jockey and trainer were disappointed. I did notice that based on the odds before post time, that if one had placed a bet on all of the other eight horses, if any of them had won (except for Hard Luck Ten, which was 7-1) you would have made at least twice your money back. Almost a can't lose bet (unless the favorite wins, but clearly those were great odds). As it turns out the winner was something like 36-1, so he paid $72. Therefore, if you had bet $10 on each of the other eight horses, then you would have bet $80 and received $360. Too bad for Smarty Jones, but more importantly too bad for me for not noticing these outrageous odds until it was too late to do anything about it. Also, it would have been the classic hedge for me. Bet the opposite way of what my heart wants. If Smarty Jones wins, well emotionally I am happy, even though I just lost $80. If he loses, well than counting my winnings helps to heal a broken heart. This is pretty much what I do every time the Buckeyes play Michigan.