He's a Lemon

Today I was pondering the state of our country and our President. President Obama's approval rating is still 53%, according to Real Clear Politics. This is despite the fact, that again according to Real Clear Politics, 53% of Americans think our country is on the wrong track. How can the President maintain a 53% approval rating when so many people think our country is going down the wrong path? I'm not even going to get into the debacle that is his health care reform "plan."

Then it hit me...President Obama is a Lemon. Stick with me here. In the election, Obama got 53% of the vote, or real close to it. His approval rating is 53%. Coincidence? I think not!

What I think we have here is the same thing that happened to me when we bought a Kia Sedona minivan in 2002. We have to make some long drives to visit family, so we decided to purchase a minivan, but we went with a Kia Sedona, because it was inexpensive. When I say we, I mean I...the smartest person in my house was never too crazy about the idea.

We owned that van for 3 years. In that time, we had it in the shop several times, we found that it didn't get the advertised gas mileage, it wasn't that comfortable on long drives, and the seats were hard to remove. However, it took me 2 and a half years before I would admit that buying the vehicle was a mistake. It took 2 and a half years before I no longer "approved" of the minivan.

This is exactly what is going on with Obama. The 53% of this country who voted for him hasn't given up on him yet, despite mounting evidence that he isn't the man they voted for. He claimed to be a moderate who would work across party lines, yet he never meets with Republicans. He said unemployment wouldn't go above 8%, but, sadly, we're closing in on 10%. He claimed that the real war was in Afghanistan, and when he was President that's where he'd fight the war on terror. But now that his handpicked General for Afghanistan wants 40,000 additional troops, Obama is waffling...playing politics rather than being the Commander-in-Chief. And again, I won't go into the debacle that is his health care "plan."

What we're learning is that Barack Obama is no more qualified to be President than your average State Senator (which he was until 4 years ago),...or Sarah Palin. He didn't have enough experience or substance for the job, but too many were fooled by his eloquent speeches and carefully crafted persona. As a nation, we bought a Kia Sedona...and now we all have to face the fact that he's a lemon.

Movie Review: Inkheart

"Inkheart" is a Brendan Fraser movie that does a great job of minimizing Brendan Fraser to the point where he doesn't suck all the life out of it. Though, everybody in the movie, but Fraser, has a British accent. But, the minimalization (is that word?) of Fraser worked...I ended up really liking this movie, rating it 4 stars.

"Inkheart" is loosely based on a children's book of the same title. I say loosely, not because I've read the book, but because I've been told that the movie and the book are quite different. Also, because it seems like all movies based on books are loosely based. "Inkheart" centers around Mo Folchart (Fraser) and his daughter Meggie. Mo is a bookbinder who always searches the bookstores he visits for a certain book. Unbeknownst to his daughter, when Mo reads aloud, he brings characters in the book he is reading to life. The adventure begins when the evil Capricorn (played by Andy Serkis, who was Gollum in Lord of the Rings) tracks down Mo and his daughter. Capricorn was brought to life out of a book, and wants Mo to bring more characters to life, in order to carry out his evil plans.

Overall, "Inkheart" kept me interested. I think it started out slowly, but picked up pace about 30-40 minutes in. Paul Bettany is really good as Dustfinger, and like I said, Fraser didn't annoy me. The young girl in the movie, Eliza Bennet, is very good for a child actor. Of course, it's hard to look bad next to Brendan Fraser.

I think I'm going to let my kids watch this one. It's definitely PG for a reason, but I think any kid who can handle a good adventure movie and a little suspense would like "Inkheart".

The Best Thing About College Football

I've never been a huge College Football fan, though I've become a bigger fan over the past 5 or 6 years. But, I still don't plan a huge chunk of my Saturdays to watch College Football. A lot of people do, but not me.

This leads me to the best thing about College Football season...the golf courses are empty after noon on Saturdays. Today, a friend and I played 18 holes, and saw, maybe 4 other golfers the entire round. We didn't hurry at all, and finished in 3 hours 45 minutes...on a really long course to walk.

During the round, we walked past several homes that had a radio outside playing the game, so we were able to get score updates. Also, there was one guy who we could hear yelling at his TV...from over 300 yards away. The guy had his windows open, and we could hear him loud and clear...he said some not so nice words. I've been known to yell at my TV during a Broncos game, but I keep the windows closed.

There was really no point to this...I just felt like blogging about it. It's nearly October now, and golf season is winding down so I have to get random golf blogs in when I can.

There's a Grain of Truth in All Humor

A coworker sent this to me today. I haven't heard of Tim Hawkins before, but it seems he has more videos out there. I haven't watched any of the others, but with this one, I was nearly crying with laughter.

Am I a Bad Person?

I'm a terrible person. I must be a terrible person...what kind of person takes joy in the misery of others? A terrible one!

Why do I say such awful things about myself? Well, this past weekend was the opening weekend of the 2009 NFL season. Beyond the start of my Denver Broncos, there was the additional intrigue of how the traitorous Jay Cutler was going to do in Chicago. You'll remember that Cutler was the Broncos quarterback for the last 3 seasons, until he pouted and whined his way into a trade to Chicago this off season. I'm still irritated about how everything unfolded.

This weekend, Cutler and the Bears opened on Sunday Night against the Green Bay Packers. Earlier in the day, the Broncos had won on a last second miracle touchdown, so I was already pretty happy. However, I was nearly ecstatic at the end of the Bears/Packers game, because Jay Cutler threw 4 interceptions in the Bears loss. Cutler was awful...and I was overjoyed at his awfulness.

I think this makes me a bad person. I think it's ok to root against a team or a player, but to be openly happy when they fail? I just don't know about that. I'm going to have to work on this as the NFL season rolls on. I'm hoping this wears off now that opening week is done, the season is under way and I've recognized the behavior I need to change. After all, the first step in overcoming a problem is acknowledging you have a problem.

Movie Review: Holes

I rented "Holes" from Netflix because I thought this might be a movie that my 8 year old and I could watch together. I previewed it last night, and while it was an ok movie, it definitely wasn't worth another viewing.

"Holes" is set in a fictional Green Lake, Texas, where it hasn't rained in forever. The lake is all dried up, and there is now a children's correctional camp there, where the kids dig holes every day as a way to build character. The main character is Stanley Yelnats, played by Shia Lebouf. Stanley is wrongly sent to this camp. As the movie wears on, Stanley makes, then alienates, a group of friends, runs away, and eventually ends up exposing the camp for what it really is...which you'll have to watch to find out.

I actually found the story sort of hard to follow. The movie often bounced back and forth between the history of Green Lake, and current day. The history was supposed to give us a picture of why the camp is what it is. The problem is, there's no one really telling the story, so all of the sudden, we're in the past watching a story between 2 people we don't know. Eventually we find out who they are, but it took FOREVER!!! Maybe some people like that type of story telling but it's not for me.

I rate this one 3 stars...I'm glad I saw it once, but it's not worth watching again. I think the story is really complicated for littler kids, so wouldn't recommend it for under age 10.

My Favorite Iowa Golf Course

This week, I've been fighting a terrible cold. Today, I woke up around 4 am and was so stuffed up that I couldn't sleep anymore. This was a major bummer, because today was supposed to be a Finkbine Friday. Finkbine is the golf course at the University of Iowa, and my favorite course in Iowa. Admittedly, there are a lot of Iowa courses I haven't played, but currently, Finkbine is my favorite.

Well, as I said, I was feeling terrible, and was considering cancelling. But, the smartest person in my house (probably the world) told me I should just go and that I would start feeling better once I was out there. So, I got heavily medicated and went to meet the 3 guys I was going to be golfing with.

Before I met the guys, I stopped at McDonald's for a large orange juice. Never order a large orange juice at McDonald's. It's a 32 oz. orange juice. That's a whole lotta juice. But I digress.

We arrived at the course early, and got to tee off about 20 minutes early. I rented a cart because I didn't think I could walk the course with the way I was feeling. On the first hole, I ripped a perfect drive, right down the middle. From there, I proceeded to have a bit of a rough go of it on the front nine, but the weather was perfect, the course was in great shape, and I had good company. That really smart person in my house was right...I was feeling a little better, though still glad I had a cart.

Well, the effects of my cold must have helped me as the round wore on, because I made an eagle and 2 birdies on the back 9 to end up shooting a pretty respectable score...and my personal best at Finkbine. I can't wait to get back there again.