Panthers are pathetic
Cut all of them, except Ricky Proehl. He can stay.

Big in France
My friend Andrew, who I met in Japan, now lives in St. Louis and was actually interviewed by French TV (I think) when they had the presidential debates there. Anyway, for a limited time, he's on the front page of this French Web Page. Whoa. Seems like a pretty big deal, check it out. Click Here.

Some Final Election Thoughts
Losing sucks. Republicans control just about every function of government right now. But I'm trying not to be too discouraged here. 48 (ed.'s note- actually 55.5) million people voted for Kerry, and despite what right-wingers might try to tell you about a mandate, that's a hell of a lot of people who stood up for their beliefs when it mattered. Just got to take this in stride like any other setback. Like young Indy was told in the Last Crusade, "You lost today, kid. But that doesn't mean you have to like it."

One final parting shot:

If you voted for it...
You bought it. No returns, exchanges, or guarantees. Well, I'll make a guarantee. These next four years will set the country back decades, and I can't say that I'm too happy about it. I'm pretty pissed off and dissapointed right now, first the Panthers suck, and now this? I sure was cryin' in my beer last night. 4 more years....

It's almost over.
With Election Day looming, the great political circus of Election 2004 is coming to a close. That's right, there is actually something resembling a conclusion to all this madness. Of course, this year seems way more than likely to have recounts and court challenges and disenfranchised voters and busted electronic voting machines than normal, but hey, what ya gonna do. Now, I'm getting unbleievably sick of all this just like you, but before everything wraps up, there's one thing that I still gotta do. That's right, folks. THE ELECTION 2004 POST. Believe it.

I want to state right off the top that the Squared Sevens Blogging Corp. editorial board endorses John Kerry for President. Now, with the incumbent you-know-who up for re-election, it's going to be as much of a referendum on Bush's 4 years in office as much as anything else. There's a lot of seemingly self-important people out there pooh-poohing over Kerry's qualifications and abilities to be president, but right now I would take mediocre over mind-blowingly bad. And, did this people watch the debates? I felt Kerry did very well and showed a whole lot more of a understanding of the problems that the US faces than Bush. About these flip-flopping attacks, I don't buy the spin. Anyone with a long Senate career will have a voting record that can be easily attacked, so that's why so many recent Presidents have previously been governors.

Again, seeing how this election is more or less a referendum on Bush, let's go over his record on the past four years. I can't say that it measures up too well, to put it lightly. Actually, it's pretty flippin terrible. Being llllllli... intentionally misled about Iraq, WMDs, and the Al-qaeda connection, huge deficits we young'uns gotta pay for, John Ashcroft, the Plame leak, disregard for allies, fear-mongering, a constitutional amendment about gay marriage, allowing the rules to be bent until they broke at Abu Ghraib, unability to accept responsibility, or fire anyone, ever, big-business lovin' policies, gutting the environment, I can go on.

Oh, I forgot this one. US had a chance to kill terrorist mastermind Zarqawi, but didn't as it would undermine "case" for war--here.

Can't forget the failure to catch Bin Laden either. Clickhere. and here.

So if you know all this, how can people still support Bush? Because, well, they don't. Misinformation is a key part of the Bush campaign, and has been from the get-go. If you only click one link this year, click that one. Check pipa.org for more.

Look at the survey for yourself here.pdf file. Hmmm!

Anyway, with all this, I feel Bush has more or less forfeited any right to lead any organization or body ever again. Seeing how I live in a "red" state though, my vote basically doesn't matter! Great.

How I Feel Right Now
Way too much work

To All My Japanese Readers
Ki Wo Tsukete!! It's getting dangerous out there in Nihon. Hopefully, everyone is safe.

Congrats Red Sox... for sticking it to the Yankees.
I'm pretty speechless now. Red Sox beat the Yankees, badly, in New York to win Game 7 and take the pennant. Unbelievable. It seems so strange, like there's been a giant black hole, or a tear in the universe, and we're all in an alternate dimension. Red Sox winning... in Yankee Stadium?? Huh? Pedro coming in for relief, getting lit up, and somehow escaping the inning? Johnny "Double Play" Damon jacking homers left and right? The Yanks looking lost and confused, fans silenced, as they lose yet again?

Is The Curse Reversed???? Coming back from an 0-3 deficit might be enough to do it. Who knows. Either way, Games 6 and 7 may have been one of the greatest sporting events I've witnessed so far. And the way that they redeemed the game 7 loss of last year was just incredible. Instant classic.

Baseball- The Other Fall Sport
I was going to post about something else tonight, but damn if the Sox and Yankees aren't in another classic matcup. With the history between these two teams, it's only fitting that it's going to go seven games. Like I said in Game 1, the Red Sox will rally. Why? Because this is Sox-Yanks, that's why.

Tonight's Game 6 had all the makings of a classic- the controversial (but correctly) overturned calls, the bizarre riot police appearance, Schilling's performance on a bum ankle, and late inning full count heroics. I'm going to expect the same from tomorrow night's game as well. With the Yankees losing three straight and failing to close out the series, you know the pressure's on them and they have to be feeling nervous. But never count out New York at home. Either way, a great series and Game Seven is all that you can ask for.

Beastie Boys "Report"
Your Intrepid reporter, Frodaddy here with a dispatch about the Beastie Boys concert on Friday Oct. 15th in Duluth Georgia. First I want to say the Gwinnet Center, where the concert was held, is a great brand spanking arena, with free parking, and getting in and out of the arena was a cinch.

Anyway, we got there fairly early, and the opening act was, well, a dog show led by a guy named Bob. Actually, it was fairly entertaining, the dogs were pretty well trained I guess. The Beastie Boys can get away with this and make it seem cool, because, well, they're the Beastie Boys.

A quick word about the crowd- it seemed to be mostly folks in their late 20's or early 30's, and almost exclusively white, so I guess most of these people are ones who rocked out to "Check Your Head" and "Ill Communication" in college. The other opening act was Talib Kweli. He's a good act but you know he's got to be getting tired of opening for bigger acts by now. Anyways, after a slow start the crowd did start to get into it, after Talib reminded them several times that "this is a hip hop show". So after that, everybody, and I really mean just about everybody did a beer run.

Then it was time for the real show to begin. It hit me pretty much immediately that I should have gotr General Admission tix, our seats were good but all the real fun was down in front of the stage. Still, everybody was pretty amped, and after an awesome mix intro by Mix Master Mike the Boys hit the stage. The highlights were pretty much non-stop from there. The Beasties did a good job of mixing up the old and new, and even dropping new beats on classic favorites. After rapping for awhile, a quick wardrobe change, and it was time for some of the more laid back instrumental songs.

Then it was back to rapping, and the hits continued. They tried to have the crowd rap the whole song of Paul Revere, but they didn't quite make it. Finally, and kind of weakly, the show ended. Something didn't seem quite right about the way the show wrapped up, and then... down in the stands, all the way at the other end of the arena, the Beasties showed up, rapping their asses off, and the crowd went wild. Good thing there wasn't a riot. Once that was done, the Beasties showed up one more time and finished the show with some more rockin' instrumental songs, including Sabotage and What'cha want.

The Beasties looked like they were genuinely having fun, riffing off each other, and that translated into a good show for the fans. A theme of the tour is "pagentry", and anybody who dressed up as a classic BB video character (Cochise, Intergalactic suits) was sure to get a shout out. They put in some more nice touches, like moving TV screens, movable stages, and some Matrix-style camera shots, in addition to the awesome encore. Frodaddy's review? 4 outta 4 stars.