Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year

This will be my final post in 2009 and I want to wish my readers a happy, healthy and safe New Year in 2010. Thank you for a great first year and I look forward sharing my thoughts and feelings about the days events in the next year to come.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Mike Leach

Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach was accused of locking Adam James, the son of former SMU star and current ESPN analyst Craig James, in a shed because he claimed he had a concussion and thought he should sit out practice. He was promptly fired and will not coach in the upcoming Alamo Bowl game. Texas Tech University claimed it was blatant insubordination but I am sure it was a zero tolerance act.

My thoughts, the circumstances as to why he wanted to sit out or whether he should are questionable but this is borderline uncivilized punishment. We are not in the colonial days, tomorrow the calendar will turn to 2010. There are other more appropriate ways to discipline. This also questions how Leach was taking concussion concerns as there has been a serious crackdown on how to medically treat and handle players with head injuries.

Update: He got canned and the lawyers are getting involved. This dispute is going to be a cirucs!

Real World Washington

Tonight the "Real World-Washington" will be premiering on MTV. It was filmed at a house not too far from where I work. They even brought the crew to a charity happy hour that I attended. Although the focus of the show is on the talent, it will be interesting to see how much of the Washington influence/atmosphere takes place in the the show. I discuss this in an earlier post.
http://bostowash06.blogspot.com/2009/07/real-world-dc.html

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Pats in the Playoffs

The Patriots clinched the AFC East Title today with a dominating 35-7 win over Jacksonville at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. While I did not see the game itself, they looked like the Patriots of old and a team trying to get into playoff form. It was important for them to clinch this week because they are going to need to rest players in the regular season finale against the Houston Texans. Also, Houston is still in the playoff hunt and they could be playing them in the wild card round and the Patriots would not want to show them too much. The Super Bowl is in Miami this year- Mission Miami!!

Holiday season

I had a wonderful holiday back in Massachusetts with my family. Wednesday was my mother's last day of school as she has decided to retire so I visited her there (I actually surprised her) and we went out for a nice dinner after that. Christmas Eve we had our tradition lobster dinner and we had one of my father's cousins over for after dinner drinks/coffee/dessert. Christmas morning we had breakfast with my grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins followed by seeing extended family in the afternoon. I really value this time of year since this is the only time I see people I know, particularly distant family. I also met a friend of mine (whom I have known for ten years) in Boston for a late lunch. It always seems like the holidays go by too fast but at least they come around every year. There is a lot to look forward to in 2010 anyway.

Terrorist on flight to U.S.

On Christmas Day there was a Nigerian terrorist who attempted to start a fire and explosion on a Northwest/Delta flight from Amsterdam bound for Detroit. Luckily, a bunch of passengers/crew subdued him before a casualty took place-congrats to them for their efforts. There are two questions that remain from this:
-The flight originated in Amsterdam, would he have gotten on the plane if it had originated in the United States. This calls into questions the security procedures of other nations, particularly allies of us in Europe. Since the United States has little jurisdiction over that, it makes this whole ordeal an international problem as opposed to just a domestic security problem.
-The man in question was on the terrorist watch list but not a no-fly list. I think it is time to combine the two of them.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Senate passes healthcare reform

The Senate passed their version of health insurance reform this morning before taking off for Christmas..not a bad Christmas present! It will be interesting to see how the final bill come out in conference committee. Joe Biden even presided over the session realizing the historic nature of the vote.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

I am sitting in the Baltimore Washington Airport writing this post getting ready to head back to Massachusetts for Christmas-my favorite holiday of the year. As you have seen it has been a very exciting year and I want to thank friends and family for all of their support through good times and stressful situations. I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday with family and friends (as I plan on doing) and hope all of your hopes and dreams come true in 2010!

I just want to give a heads up on upcoming attractions. It looks like their is a guest post in the pipeline for Boston to Washington. Stay tuned!!

Monday, December 21, 2009

Health Care on the cusp of passing

The Senate has voted to avoid filibuster and will go ahead with a vote on the health care reform bill with a vote of 60-40 (to go to cloture). They plan on doing on Xmas Eve, talk about creating theatre. After it goes to conference committee, it will be interesting to see the outcome of the final bill that the House and Senate will have to vote on again, especially with the public option in the House bill but not the Senate.

Day off of work

The snow was so heavy in DC the Federal Government shut down for the day on Monday giving me a day off of work. This rarely happens that I get a snow day so I am enjoying it. I caught up on a lot of stuff and even got my bags ready to go back home on Wednesday-you can see I am eager to be home for Christmas! We have to go back tomorrow but it should be quiet at least.

Its playoff scenario time

As the days get closer to Christmas, we are getting into the portion of the NFL season where we figure out who will make the playoffs and who will be staying home and the complex permutations that require statistical knowledge to figure out. While the Patriots do not look like the Super Bowl contender everyone thought they were, they have won two hard fought games in the past two weeks and with Miami and New York Jet losses yesterday, find themselves in a position where they need a loss by Miami or a win in one of the final two games to win their division and make the playoffs. It does not get much simpler than controlling your own destiny and as long a Bill B is the coach they should have no problem doing that in their last two games-no knowledge of stats or permutations needed.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Snow time!

Washington is having a snowstorm of historic proportions. They are getting more than a foot of snow and it is probably going to paralyze the city for at least a day. Some school systems are already closing on Monday. They are having such a difficult time cleaning up so it really is not worth it to leave your place. It is sure nice to be inside and essentially catch up on a lot of indoor stuff and watch the ubiquitous coverage on the local TV news. However it isn't the same as watching the local news in Boston. I remember Shelby Scott was the consummate snowstorm reporter on WBZ TV in Boston.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Even more Tiger fallout

Tiger Woods has decided to take a break from golf to focus on his family and personal life. It will be interesting to see when he comes back to competitive. It is amazing the coverage this is getting partly because it is the holiday season and that Tiger Woods is clearly the greatest athlete of our time. I am sure he will use the time to get help and come back strong to golf. Sponsors have also been pulling Tiger from many of the ads. I feel this is a personal matter that should not get too much scrutiny. However this is the 21st century media so that is a wish that will not be granted!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

MA Senate Race

Today Massachusetts voters went to the polls to select a Democratic and Republican nominee for the Senate seat once held by the late Senator Ted Kennedy. The Dems had MA Attorney General Martha Coakley, Congressman Mike Capuano, Non-Profit Exec Alan Khazei, and Celtics partner Steve Pagliuca. The Republicans had State Senator Scott Brown and Businessman Jack Robinson. As of this writing Scott Brown has been declared the winner of the Republican primary and Martha Coakley has built a sizable lead in the Democratic primary. The general election will be January 19. Voter turnout was low. For the general election, please get out and vote if you live in Massachusetts. We are talking about Ted Kennedy's seat and both sides will contest this race aggressively as it is highly coveted.

Update: Coakley does win the Democratic nomination

Friday, December 4, 2009

More Tiger Fallout

It looks like the car accident was only scratching the surface. Instead he has been fooling around with a few women-gee what celebrities have not been doing this. This comes during the week of one of the "silly season" tournaments that benefits his foundation. He has had to miss that as he is instead home in Orlando attending intense marriage counseling. At least this did not come out during the week of a major!