The Armstrong Files

Three Texas surgeons were having lunch together and discussing surgeries they had performed.

One of them said, "I'm the best surgeon in Texas. A concert pianist lost 7 fingers in an accident, I reattached them and 8 months later he performed a private concert for the Queen of England."

One of the others said. "That's nothing. A young man lost both arms and legs in a terrible accident, I reattached them and 2 years later he won 2 gold medals in field events in the Olympics."

The third surgeon said, "You guys are amateurs. Several years ago a guy who was high on cocaine and alcohol rode a horse head-on into a train traveling 80 miles an hour. All I had left to work with was the horse's ass and mouth and....

Although I am no big fan of Howard Stern, I do believe that there are more effective ways to deal with his type of programming than by forceable cencorship by a far right wing government. There is a recent technological invention that has recently been created that would deal with this problem once and for all....

Do you want to know what it is???

....I will tell you the answer if you will.......

Market share determines who this guy's employer is, not the friggin' government!! Do you really want someone dictating to you what you should hear, see, read...?

Eh?

Free society??
Free speech??

Horse dung!

If you dont like seeing this......

then TURN THE CHANNEL MORON!!

I dont like Stern, ....no love loss there. I dont want my kid watching him....but I will raise my kid, not Clear Channel, not the FCC, and certainly not GWB.

And I am not ganging up the the right, .....you dont have to look too far to the left to find the same thing...(Tipper Gore anyone??).

Folks, let us raise our children, ...I will appreciate all the advice you care to give and I will appreciate you for the offer....but DO NOT force feed your morals to me because I am not hungry for them.

Thank you,

Rice holds tuff!!!

CNN is now reporting that attempts are now underway to declassify the White House memo in question. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said that there is cooperation between the 911 commission and the White House to find out how to make the document available to the public without compromising intelligence or security issues.

I will never forget the first time I saw these images flash across the screen. I was horrified, scared, and wondering what these soldiers must have been going through. These soldiers were going against a dictator who invaded a small country that most of them had probably never heard of before...I know I had never heard of Kuwait before Saddam's invasion. Can you imagine what these POW's went through?? Can you put a price on that??

The US government makes good arguments against the former POW's claims to this money, at the present time, but how do you deny them?? And at the same time, ...the same administration will turn to tell our troops that are currently overseas that they will not be going home as they have been expecting. Instead, they will be told that they will remain until they can repel the recent explosion of hostilities that are now occuring in Iraq?

This seems to be a cruel and calculated escalation of hostilities timed at just the precise moment that would be the most damaging to our troops morale. Refusing to compensate the POW's must be making the news wires over in Iraq too. If I were them, I would certainly be getting the word out about this.

I cannot imagine what these POW's went through during their capture but, and I mean absolutely no disrespect whatsoever to our Desert Storm heroes, ... did we pay our Vietnam POW's 60 million dollars for what they went through? I am not going to say that what they went through is worth 60 million or even 10 times that, but if we pay it to the POW's from Desert Storm then do we not owe it to our Vietnam POW's?? Does the political aspect, or righteousness, of the war in question rest squarely on the shoulders of the soldier?

This was after that one out he managed to salvage in the first inning...

For an inning by inning recap of opening day......

Ummm, .....as a Number one starter for a franchise looking for their 13th consecutive division championship I must admit that Russ Ortiz makes one helluva 2nd string softball guy....

2nd inning

Ortiz continues to impress......a fastball that insn't fast, a curve ball that doesn't curve, and a sinker that stays above the letters....he is all over it!!! I have a good feeling about 2004'. If our offense can score 1,200 or more runs this season I have all the confidence in the world....

3rd inning

Ortiz continues his mastery of the opposition and makes it just slightly harder to hit the ball than if it was placed on a tee as evidenced by Mike Piazza's homerun...it only went 430 feet!!! Ortiz, however, is missing a few pitches but luckily, when he misses it's only from the letters up....Braves new catcher Johnny Estrada finally went to the mound to offer words of encouragement and told Ortiz "Don't worry, when they hit it, it's only going to the warning track."...which made a huge difference....One other note of interest, Ortiz is cutting down on his base on balls total as everything he throws is being hit!!! Ortiz also shows the competition a thing or two about his mettle by refusing to give in to the hitters with the bases loaded.....and proves this by walking in a run! You go boy!!!

Unfortunately Bobby Cox lift's our starting pitcher before he makes it out of the 3rd inning. Now, we must wait until the next Ortiz start for him to have the opportunity to get his ERA below the respectable level of 9.0.

4th inning

Cruz strikes out Piazza...and without the benefit of a tee...No Bout Adout it!!! The Braves show their pitching depth by only allowing one run in the 4th inning. You keep on throwing that shit boy!!!

5th inning

Tom Glavine's performance is artificially inflated by a mediocre 5 run lead....no gamesmanship there!!! (btw, why is Maddux the only one with enough hair to throw 2 changeups in a row??...just a thought.). So far we have proved our American prowess to our Japanese counterparts and have held MLB newcomer Matsui to a 2 for 2 average, 1 double, a homerun, and a walk, ...oops, shit, he got another double...OK, now he is 3 for 3 with 2 doubles, a homer, and a walk....I'll bet he wishes he was back in the friendly confines of his native Japan....what a sucker!!!

6th inning

O.K., the Bravo's send in Nitkowski to pitch and ....nobody dies.....it's a one, two, three inning???? Hell, I must be watching the wrong channel!!!

7th inning

Bobby Cox, in his infinite wisdom, calls for Alfonseca to come in and pitch.....these damn umpires..., doesn't "in the area" count anymore??? There are no cheap hit's off of this pitcher, ...ALL are hit solidly!! ...Somehow I feel that the umpires are getting cheap on me,... yes..., I understand that they should expand the strike zone in a little league game but let's keep it under the chin....k, ...C'ept of course when we are pitching...

8th inning

Now we see the real Bobby Cox in action, ...evaluating who can handle the pressure of taking the mound and allowing the opposition no more than a 5 run lead. "What the hell is this white round ball?? What am I supossed to do with it?" Our Brave Brave's are attempting to keep us right in the thick of a 7 to 2 ballgame...you go boys!!!

9th inning

The Braves failed to let the opposition score....shit, will try harder next time!

Bottom of the 9th...

The Braves offense held tough and absolutely refused to let the Mets allow them to score even a single run in the 9th inning.!!! ...I absolutely cannot wait for the other 161 games to be played....I am absolutely pumped!! Go Braves!!!

Tonight the Atlanta Braves begin their 2004 season against none other than the New York Mutts.

Conservative talk on the defense??

Wait a minute, what am I saying?? Hehehe, I almost lost it, ...I almost said that the inception of the Al Gore liberal radio network might have sparked this latest verbal assault from the worthy vocal strings or Mr. O'Reilly....of course only to make his point but to maintain what credibility he has with his listeners...as an ever trusted Independent.

If I were at odds with Mr O'Rielly I could make the claim that he slighted the ultra-conservative talk show hosts just in order to retain a little bit of his independent credibility whilst he slammed the liberal radio network to be....lord knows he has no beef with a publication such as.....the New York Times.

...but of course, I like Mr O'Reilly, why would I ever do a thing like that??

CNN is reporting that Kerry is hollaring about Bush's proposed spending and the amount passing more than 6 trillion. Now I am not going to try and fool you into believing that I can actually grasp the actual concept of what 6 trillion means....in regards to anything! I will just assume that it is quite a bit of whatever the subject matter may be....in this case, our tax dollars.

Fine, 6 trillion. Make an argument but dont be hypocritical please. There are cases to be made for rabid spending on both sides of the campaign trail.

John Kerry wants to do some amazing things. When you hear him speak, its hard not to get your emotions stirred a bit.

He is pledging to re-energize R&D across the board.

He is also pledging to get the U.S. back in to the forefront of the alternative energy sciences.

He is pledging to pay for 4 years of in-state college education to all graduating high school seniors who commit themselves to two years of community service upon graduation.

He is pledging to improve border and port security.

He is pledging to ensure that all students accepted to a privileged Ivy League university will be able to go, regardless of whether they can afford it or not.

..and, last but certainly not least, he is pledging to make healthcare a right to all U.S. citizens....all while raising taxes and promising at the same time to reduce our current deficit by 50% during his would-be tenure as President.

Hey, like anyone else, I like what he is proposing. We have to invest in education first and foremost. Of all of Kerry's promises, I find that to be the most uplifting. Also, R&D, defense, taxing the wealthy, universal health-care...who WOULDNT want these in an ideal society??

But excuse me?? Every time he promises something it costs money does it not??...who's money?? Why of course, your money and my money. These things aren't free. Great, some kid can't afford his Ivy League education so they will pilfer my paycheck to pay for it, that way, when he graduates he can become my supervisor and vote to nulify this years pay raises so that the stockholders can gain a few more cents on their dividends.

I am not trying to trash Kerry, honestly I am not. I was motivated by his recent speech and have gained a sense of respect for him that I did not initially have. But to have him criticize our president on spending when everytime he utters a sentence he is spending your dollars.....and then to have us believe that at the same time he will cut the deficit in half is just outrageous to me.

Mr Kerry, I like your platform, but please pick a different area to attack GWB on. It will give your campaign more credibility.

Now to give credit where credit is due: Mr Kerry, I wholeheartedly agree with the way in which you would attack the outsourcing problem that is facing us today.

Today's businessmen would have you believe that the reason they are outsourcing job's to India and other places is not because it is cheap but because our graduating students lack the technical expertise to be able to handle such jobs. That is GOP bull. The reason is that these businesses, once they go overseas, are not subject to the taxes that they are in this country and can, at the end of the fiscal year, defer and continue to defer their money's year after year after year, ...so there is no incentive for them to repatriate their money....and yes, the foreign labor is cheap as well as skilled.

Kerry proposes to rescend all tax breaks to these fat cat corporations who are presently sending our jobs overseas. To that, I tip my hat.

Bush Administration drops a bomb!

Former US Chief weapons inspector, David Kay, doubts there were ever any mobile weapons labs inside Iraq....but then goes on C-Span and says that while countries like Iraq and Lybia may not have had the technical resources within their own boundaries to make such weapons.....it was NO problem for them to go to an outside source, and in the process Mr Kay mentioned the Malaysians, to develop and to provide for them whatever their hearts desired and pocket books could afford.

Phew! Finally, ...basketball is coming to a close and now is the time we can start talking about real sports!! The Braves have, at Time Warners insistance, dropped 20 million from their payroll this year and GM John Schuerholz has still managed to put together a stellar lineup.

Well, I must admit it will be a bit more challenging than in years past. Philadelphia has made some good off-season acquisitions and will have a new ballpark to play in and most consider them the runaway favorites to take the division hold from the Braves for the first time in over a decade. I dont give it much credence though, after all they still play for Larry Bowa.

And of course we cant forget last years World Series Champions....the Florida Marlins. Yes, Pudge is no longer a fish but has moved up the food chain and is now a Tiger (?) but the Marlins still have very strong and very young pitching.

Very young. Yes, that is what is overlooked in most doom and gloom articles written about the Braves in most sports publications. Their entire starting infield is under the age of 30 and Chipper Jones is the only outfielder older than 30. We have beefed up our bullpen recently mainly with the addition of Cruz who, hopefully with Mazzone's help, can regain some his control. It will be nice to have a 96 MPH dart thrower coming in before Sure Thing Smoltz, ...sure thing when healthy.

All in all, I think its going to be a close divisional race this year. The Braves will not win 100 games this time but I believe they will continue their streak of divisional championships. Phillies will finish 2nd with the Marlins 3-6 games behind them.....so says Suami.

Well, they are finally doing it, CNN is reporting that NASA is going to send Einstein's balls into outer space...well, only in a manner of speaking of course.