Uncle John's Musings

A week ago I was witnessing the Brickyard 400 and having a great thrill.

It's tough to be a Cardinals fan. On Thursday they left 11 men on base and lost in the 11th inning. On Friday they stranded 12 runners and lost in the 12th. These losses were bracketed by 15 to 2 and 12 to 1 drubbings. I can't decide which is worse. The team has already broken the franchise record for the most losses by 10 or more runs in a season, and we have a long way to go. It is tough to be a Cardinals fan.

How important do you have to be in order to be assassinated rather than murdered? If one puts in his two cents worth and if one is offered a penny for his thoughts, what happens to the extra cent? Why does pizza come in a square container? Why is a performer IN a movie but ON a TV show? Why is bra singular and panties plural? Perhaps some new government funded studies are in order.

Speaking of government, the area real property assessment offices have installed record high valuation increases on our homes throughout the city and county, even though it is well known to all that property values have gone up very little (if any at all) since the last assessments. Our governments, being ever responsive to hardships on the voters, have instituted a sales tax reprieve for school supplies purchased this week end in area retail stores. Maybe next year they will greatly increase our sales tax and toss us a tiny property tax rebate.

I'm still trying to get vestiges of aluminized paint off of my fingernail cuticles. If that paint adheres near as tight to the roofs as it did to me, the paint job should be good for many years.

The real "race" in the Presidential contest seems to be among the various states as they position themselves to deliver earlier and earlier primaries than they had originally scheduled. It's going to make for a very long year for citizens who are not fond of political ads. I think the primary elections should be moved toward November, not toward January. Among the candidates, I think Edwards again earned a mention. He called upon all Democrat candidates to return any campaign money received from Rupert Murdoch or his minions. This fellow owns News Corp, which owns Fox and many other enterprises. Edwards revealed that he had received a few thousand dollars from a mid level manager and that he was in the process of returning it. Edwards did not mention that he had received about $800,000 from a Murdoch company on an advance for a book deal and has no plans of returning that. Can you say "hypocrisy?"

Someone reported that, all told, there are now over 300 congressional investigations on various administration activities or inactivities on the docket. I am assuming this is not true. I have an uneasy feeling it may be. Another reporter said that we have been no safer from terrorists since 9/11/01 than we were before then. I can think of two attacks on New York, one on a battleship, two on US embassies, and one on a US occupied complex in the earlier period. I recall none since. But I'm sure the "journalist" is an impartial, unimpeachable one.

It has been unbelievably hot here (St. Louis) since our return from cool, refreshing Indiana. Next week is supposed to be hotter yet. I haven't played tennis or been on the bike for quite a while now. I'm starting to become a believer in the global warming scenario.

Former Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert has lost 85 pounds since resigning from the post. Who says he was a do nothing Speaker in a do nothing House. Looks to me like he was doing something. I wonder if Ms Pelosi will pack on 85 pounds in her stint as Speaker?

There were two serious wrecks in the Tour De France caused by two dogs that chose inopportune times to cross the road. France is an older country than the USA but apparently we have an edge on them when it comes to the concept dog leashes.

Car jackings were a problem in Indianapolis. The rate increase was sufficient to spark the formation of a task force to crack down on the problem. The rate has increased 145% since then. I think it may be time for Plan B.

[The lyric challenge] "The selfish, they're all standing in line,/ Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time./ Me, I figure, as each breath goes by,/ I only own my mind./ .../ I know I was born and I know that I'll die,/ The in between is mine."