full of vitriol and ready to fight

- The double talk and beat-around-the-bush statements keep on flowing from the mouth of our Ignoramus-in-Chief. W. says we’ll withdraw from Iraq some time and has in past speeches stated that our commitment there is not open-ended, but in the face of mounting pressure from both houses of Congress to choose a withdrawal date, he refuses to say when we will begin pulling out. So to clarify, there will come a day when we leave and it’s a fixed point, but we’re not going to pick that date or decide when it will be. Hope that makes sense to all of you, because it sounds like a load of bull crap to me. Well, if W. is able to stave off impeachment for the next couple years, I can tell you when we’re going to start pulling out of Iraq: the instant our next president takes office. Unless it’s one of the Republican honks who are staunchly behind W.’s plan (and even many of the Republican candidates would probably end the war if the decision was theirs to make and they were in charge), whomever we elect in the 2008 election will come in under intense public pressure to end this war. Odds are good that the winner will have won because he (or she) clearly stated that a part of their campaign platform was ending this God-forsaken war. W. did have the audacity to accuse Congress of delaying funding for our troops by including the troop-withdrawal language in the funding bill, a bill they know he will reject. I disagree; it’s smart strategy by Congress, as it is one of the only means of leverage they have against W. in this struggle, other than impeachment (which I also support enthusiastically).

- It is not truly a day at the beach unless a severed human leg washes up on said beach, right? In Cove Neck, N.Y., one such severed leg washed ashore on beachfront property located on the estate of billionaire businessman and owner of the New York Knicks, James Dolan. While it would be more apropos if a gigantic pile of dog crap were mysteriously found on the property (what with the current feces-like quality of the Knicks and their coach/GM Isaiah Thomas), Dolan has to be very happy about this development. Nothing elevates property values like a severed human body part, eh? Police believe that the severed leg may be connected (pun intended) to a tattooed torso found inside a suitcase on another beach in the area three weeks ago. The leg was discovered in a plastic bag by a landscaper working on the Dolan property, which I’m sure made his day extremely pleasant and not at all disgusting. Three-week old severed human body parts aren't at all gross or odoriferous. However, I do have to ask how, in New York of all places, on Long Island, murderers don’t know how to properly dispose of a body once they’ve dismembered it. Can't you shove it into an empty oil drum or give the person you killed a pair of cement shoes so that they don’t end up washing up on shores in the area, piece by piece?

- If Michael Jackson has a favorite U.S. congressman (or former congressman), I have to think it is former Rep. Mark Foley. Foley is under investigation for allegedly going Jack-O, by which I mean (allegedly) having sexual relationships with young boys. There is a distinction to be made here; whereas Jack-O is widely assumed to have had actual physical relationships with the boys, Foley stands accused of having online relationships with them. This, coupled with Foley’s resignation last year following the revelation that he’d sent wildly inappropriate, sexually themed messages to teenage boys working as pages on Capitol Hill, definitely thrust Foley into the pedophile category in a major way. In October, he tried the now-popular tactic of public figures checking into rehab when they say or do something wildly offensive/criminal, at the time citing a problem with alcoholism and “other behavioral issues.” Call me crazy, Mr. Foley, but something tells me there’s a safe haven for you in Bahrain or Europe, wherever it is that Jack-O is calling home these days. You two can hang together and he can teach you the skill of how to wear one glove, style your hair into a man-perm and moonwalk, and you can show him how to locate the best websites for posting lewd messages to teen boys, it’s a win-win.

- For the American Karaoke honks out there who continue to try and sell that show as legitimate and as anything but the undeniably massive hunk of monkey crap that it is, your case is becoming a tougher and tougher one to make. When there’s a picture out there of a karaoke-er/contestant sporting a freakish mohawk that makes him look like the illegitimate love child of Tina Turner and Joakim Noah, I find it really hard to view the show as anything other than a big, unfunny joke. According to the photo caption, this dude (I think it’s a dude, not sure) is named Sanjaya, which definitely sounds like the name of the next big karaoke star ready to take the world by storm. Maybe this dude/chick will get lucky and he/she will end up as this season’s contestant that Paula Abdul has a fling with, that way he/she can squeeze out an extra few seconds of fame before people move on to more interesting things, like mowing their lawns.

- Michael Ray Richardson had come so far. Back in 1986, Richardson was banned by the NBA because he had basically drugged himself right out of the league. His talent on the court was overmatched by his demons off of it, and so he was booted from the Association and left to piece together a career playing in European professional leagues. He actually attained a high level of success in Europe, becoming something of a fan favorite and playing well for several years. More recently, he returned to the American basketball scene, had latched on to a role in the Denver Nuggets organization and been hired as the coach of the CBA’s Albany Patroons. Now, all of that hard work has been undone because Richardson let the world in on the secret that he is a bigoted, small-minded racist who has a curious take on Jewish people. "I've got big-time lawyers," Richardson said. "I've got big-time Jew lawyers.” This was his explanation when asked about the profitable new contract he had been offered. When told that the comment could be offensive, he responded, "Are you kidding me? They are. They've got the best security system in the world. Have you ever been to an airport in Tel Aviv? They're real crafty. Listen, they are hated all over the world, so they've got to be crafty. They got a lot of power in this world, you know what I mean?" he said. "Which I think is great. I don't think there's nothing wrong with it. If you look in most professional sports, they're run by Jewish people. If you look at a lot of most successful corporations and stuff, more businesses, they're run by Jewish. It's not a knock, but they are some crafty people." So for some reason, M.R.R. doesn’t believe that what he said is at all offensive. He doesn’t see how stereotyping an entire race of people under the “crafty” label is wrong, and that he is actually being complimentary of Jewish people. This will of course do wonders in dispelling the dumb-jock stereotype. Coupled with Tim Hardaway’s anti-homosexual rant a couple months back, Richardson’s comments only illustrate that there are at least a few small-minded bigots in the athletic world who aren't smart enough to keep their moronic beliefs to themselves. Of course, you can't paint all (or even most) athletes with that same broad stroke, because then you’d be no different than Richardson and Hardaway, but no one can deny that there is a disturbing trend amongst athletes to say incredibly offensive and bigoted things, a trend that is unfortunately gaining momentum.

- Because we anti-authority, rebellious types need to stick together, I have to give a major shout-out to the political dissidents in Vietnam who are having their worlds turned upside down by the country’s oppressive, ruling Communist Party. In America, we can't totally appreciate the nightmare that life can be for those who voice dissent with the government in third-world nations like Vietnam, but still their efforts deserve respect and admiration. Last year, these dissident groups looked like they were gaining a foothold in the country’s political scene, but recent attacks on its leaders by the government now say otherwise. Two well-known human rights lawyers in Hanoi have been arrested in recent weeks, and Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest who has been one of the opposition’s most outspoken voices, goes on trial this week for crimes against the state. Vietnam has evolved somewhat over the past decade in terms of individual freedoms, but the Communist Party still actively seeks to quash any voices who dare to oppose its policies. Now, a man such as Ly, who was freed from prison only 2½ years ago, could be headed back there because of the renewed crackdown on all things opposition in ‘Nam. Keep up the fight, guys, take every chance you have to stick it to The Man.