The Onion: Senator Ted Cruz: ‘Fills Few Hours of Marathon Speech With Rousing Pro-ObamaCare Argument’

Source:The Onion- In a marathon Senate floor speech Senator Ted Cruz (Republican, Texas) finally ran out of Tea Party propaganda and decided to embrace ObamaCare. If he had 5 more minutes, he would've endorsed President Barack Obama (Democrat, Illinois) for a third term. But every man has to eat and even use the bathroom, go to sleep before they can crash on the Senate floor from exhaustion, etc. Not necessarily from The Onion. LOL

Source:The Daily Press

“The world’s insect leaders meet at the G20,000,000,000 Summit, a bullied 8th grader incorrectly thought classmates would leave him alone during a field trip to the 9/11 memorial, and a man experiencing his first real moment of peace in years is resuscitated. It’s the week of September 27, 2013. More from The Onion." 

From The Onion

Only The Onion would report that Ted Cruz spoke in favor of so-called ObamaCare. Otherwise Senator Cruz could be both drunk and high and awake for seventy-two hours straight at the Guantanamo Bay Prison and even forced to take truth serum and still find away to be against ObamaCare.

Actually, maybe Senator Cruz’s speech happened at Guantanamo Bay Prison on one of his visit’s there after visiting his relatives in Cuba. And decided to stay back and give his big speech there, instead of flying back to Congress to speak on the Senate floor.

Or maybe Senator Cruz just ran out of things to say. That even phone books have a limited amount of pages that you can go through and read. And he was starting to fall asleep reading the phonebook, or got tired of listening to the presiding officer snore in their chair.

Or perhaps the Senator just lost his train of thought. But actually he doesn’t much have much of a train of thought to begin with, because he keeps missing that train. And decided after going into every single thing that he doesn’t like about the Affordable Care Act, including a lot of the stuff that is actually not in the law, he would then go through what he actually likes about the law.

Me personally, every time I see a story from The Onion, I gotta take it with at least one train of thought. I realize they report more facts than Fox News even and perhaps are the most trusted news organization for Millennial’s. But hear them report that Senator Cruz, whose perhaps the most prominent Tea Party member in Congress, come out in favor of the Affordable Care Act, would be like hearing Rick Santorum come out on favor of prostitution and bigamy, in the same speech.

But again you give a twenty-hour speech and anything can happen, including finally running out of stuff to say and saying things you don’t believe.

Yale University: Nicholas Wolterstorff- On Faith in Liberal Democracy

Source:Yale University- Professor Nicholas Wolterstorff. 

Source:FRS FreeState

"Miroslav Volf interviews Nicholas Wolterstorff of Yale University about the place of faith in liberal democracy. Wolterstorff discusses the strengths and weaknesses of various secular and  faith-based conceptions of justice and the public sphere, making a case for the relevance of religiously shaped discourses in deliberative democracies." 

From Yale University

Faith in liberal democracy is about the freedom of and from religion. But that they are separate from the state and that all of these things come from the Constitution. 

People have the right to practice, or not practice religion and that we have separation of church and state based on the Constitution. And that even though we have the freedom to believe what we believe. But we do not have the right to force our views on others especially through law. The right to be heard, but not the right to harass people with your views who disagree with you.

Liberals, get stereotyped as being anti-religion and that if anything we would want to see religion eliminated if not outlawed in society. Even though Liberals created the Freedom of Religion when we wrote the U.S. Constitution and created the United States. As well as the Bill of Rights that gives us all of these individual rights and freedom of choice to make these decisions for ourselves. Not the right to force our views on people who disagree with us. Which is much different and fascist even. But the fact is liberalism is built around individual freedom, rights and choices. And not statist, or fascist at all.

Now, I do believe that Liberals tend to be more secular than let's say Christian Conservatives, or Islamists. That goes without saying, because a big part of liberalism has to do with reason and evidence. That you go where the best available facts and evidence are. And take your positions and make your views based on that. Instead of using faith to make those decisions for yourself. 

But this is much different from saying that just because I or someone else is secular, that everyone else should be, or they have to be as well even through law. But again, liberalism is about individual freedom, choice and rights. That the individual can make these decisions for themselves.

Philadelphia Phillies TV: MLB 1981- Chicago Cubs vs Philadelphia Phillies: Full Game

Source:Classic Phillies TV- with the Phillies & Cubs from 1981.

Source:The Daily Press

“October 1981 – Cubs vs Phillies”

From Classic Phillies TV

1981 was an interesting season for Major League Baseball to say the least. It was a strike shorten season and the genius’ at MLB decided to do a minor league play. Which was to have the division leaders of the first and second halves of the season be the playoff teams of each league. Instead of the division winners being the teams with the best overall records in each league for the entire season.

Because of the 1981 MLB playoff format, the Cincinnati Reds even though they had the best overall record in the NL West in 1981, didn’t win that division. Because the Los Angeles Dodgers had a better record in the second half of the season. 

1981 was the first four game playoff series in MLB because of the strike shortened season. The Cubs were the Cubs in 1981, finishing in last place. They parked themselves there early on that season and never left. The Phillies were again very good and trying to defend their 1980 World Series Championship.

MLB Vault: MLB 1988- World Series Game 1- Oakland Athletics @ Los Angeles Dodgers; Full Game

Source:MLB Vault- Kirk Gibson, at the plate to face Dennis Eckersley, in game 1 of the 1988 MLB World Series.

Source:The Daily Press

"Oakland Athletics 4 at Los Angeles Dodgers 5, F -- The Dodgers, already serious underdogs against the A's and Bash Brothers Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, are given even less of a chance with injured star Kirk Gibson on the shelf. Canseco's second-inning grand slam gives Oakland a 4-3 lead until the bottom of the ninth, when dominating closer Dennis Eckersley comes on to finish it up. But with the tying run on first, Gibson limps up to pinch hit and makes World Series history with a spine-tingling, game-winning two-run homer in his only at-bat of the Series."

From MLB Vault

Source:USA Today- " Vin Scully's greatest calls: Kirk Gibson's greatest home run."

“I don’t believe what I just saw!” Which of course was Jack Buck’s famous call of Kirk Gibson’s famous home run for the Dodgers in-game 1 of the 1988 World Series off of Dennis Eckersley of the Athletics. Referring to the fact that Gibson essentially had no leg strength in that at bat, because he had two bad legs. I believe two broken ankles, perhaps just one broken ankle, but the other leg was hurt as well. And Gibson hits that home run off the best closer in MLB who was a power pitcher and for a time in the late 1980s early 1990s almost un-hittable.

The Eck ( as Dennis Eckersley was called ) was the Mariano Rivera of his generation. The Gibson home run, Kirk’s only hit in this World Series, is just an example of how great a player and hitter he was. And had he only been able to stay healthy, we are talking about a five tool player headed to first ballot status in the MLB Hall of Fame.

WJLA-TV News: 'First look: MGM National Harbor Casino Plan Unveiled'

Source:WJLA News- an employee for MGM.

Source:The New Democrat

"Here's a look at what MGM wants to build at National Harbor as part of their casino project."  

From WJLA News

National Harbor would be a perfect place for a casino, because of all of the people it would bring in. Because of the location attracting people from the Washington suburbs in Maryland, but also Virginia and Baltimore and Frederick as well. Bringing in a lot of new tax revenue for Prince George’s and the state of Maryland. And the good jobs that it will also bring to go with the tax revenue. And also allow for Maryland to really live up to being the Free State that we call ourselves by allowing for Marylanders to make their own decisions about gambling and other forms of entertainment.

ABC Sports: MLB 1988- NLCS Game 4- Los Angeles Dodgers @ New York Mets: Full Game

Source:ABC Sports- Los Angeles Dodgers LF Kirk Gibson.

Source:The Daily Press

"Los Angeles Dodgers 5 at New York Mets 4, F/12 -- Backed by homers from Darryl Strawberry and Kevin McReynolds, Dwight Gooden and the Mets enjoyed a 4-2 lead in the 9th, and seem poised to take a 3-1 series lead. But Mike Scioscia, who had only three home runs all season, had other ideas, and his two-run homer forced extra frames. Then in the 12th, Kirk Gibson foreshadowed his forthcoming World Series dramatics with a solo, go-ahead dinger off Roger McDowell. But it wasn't over yet. In the bottom half of the inning it looked as though Gibson's heroics might go to waste, as the Mets put two men on against Tim Leary. So Manager Tommy Lasorda called on his "bulldog," Orel Hershiser, to close it out. Despite having pitched into the ninth in Game 1, not to mention seven innings pitched in Game 3 the night before, Hershiser recorded the final out to tie the series at two games apiece."

From MLB Vault

The Mets and their fans have to feel that 1988 was a year that got away from them. Because the Mets and Oakland Athletics were the two best all around teams in MLB that year and neither one of them won the World series. 

1988 goes to show you that baseball is a game where if you get great pitching and play great defense, all you need to do is score enough runs to win. Which is one more run than your opponent for every game that you win. That you don’t need a great lineup and even a very good lineup to win and be successful and even win the MLB World Series. 

The 1969 Mets proved that you don't need a good, let alone very good, or great offense, to win the World Series. So did the 1985 Kansas City Royals proved that and the 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers proved that as well. Probably the three worst World Series champions at least since divisional play started in 1969.

Movie Clips: Rounders (1998) KGB, I Stick it in You!

Source:Movie Clips- KGB, played by John Malkovich.

Source:The Daily Press

“After losing a heads-up game of poker, Teddy KGB (John Malkovich) tries to goad Mike (Matt Damon) into playing a re-match.” 

From Movie Clips

One of the best scenes from Rounders, with Mike McDermott (played by Matt Damon) just beating his long time nemesis KGB. (Played by John Malkovich) And KGB obviously not feeling satisfied by that and trying to goad Mike into playing another around to get that money back. With Mike having two options: walk away and leave up from where he started and able to pay back his debts. Or get all of his money back and risk losing even more. Safe play obviously is to walk way, but like Mike said you can’t win what you don’t put in.

I’m not an expert on poker and gambling in general, but it obviously is gambling. And yes there’s skill involved and you need good skills at it to be successful and perhaps a little luck involved as well. But there’s gambling and there’s gambling and there are risks in doing anything really, especially professionally. And the good gamblers make calculated and educated risks. They just don’t walk away with money, leave owing money, because they had all the good hands at the game, or most of them. Or had almost none of the good hands.

Successful gamblers play their good hands and leave their bad ones without giving their opponents much if any idea when they have good hands and when they’re short. Which I think is the point that the Mike McDermott character played by Matt Damon was making, that gambling is not pure luck or about pure luck. But that you need good skills in it in order to be successful at it.