Some say "Sliders", as a Straight Shooter, I say "Small Bites"

(1) Who banned black caddies from televised PGA golf tournaments?

(2) What international sports governing body allows its referees to call secret penalties?

(3) Didn't anyone inform Dustin Johnson that the United States Open is a four round tourney?

(4) Did I mention how bad soccer sucks?

(5) When was the last time a White House physician told a sitting President to knock off hitting the sauce?

(6) This time, the President got it exactly right: General Stanley Dufoos McChrystal had to go quickly, if not at least quietly. (See, this blog is not just another anti-Obama screed).

(7) Lebron "King" James will leave Cleveland and sign w/. the Golden State Warriors next week, thereby teaming up with his idol, Stephen Curry.

(8) At the Alumni golf outing two weeks ago, the Bucknell bb coach told me that the University could not afford to travel all the way to North Carolina to play Davidson College. Do you smell the aroma of spoiled chicken? Just saying. . .

Our Constitutional Republic is in Jeopardy

First, in the interest of full disclosure, I am a big BP stockholder. Other winners in my portfolio include Lucent Technologies, GE and Westinghouse Air Brakes. Ok, now that you have a deeper understanding of my long term commitment to the crucially important profitability of this Blog, today's Post examines the Constitution's Guarantee to Due Process Protections every person (including a corporate individual) is afforded prior to the federal government depriving that individual of his/her freedom or private property.

President Obama, a former Con Law professor, is well schooled on this fundamental principle of the Rule of Law. Indeed, he designated the Christmas Day Undie bomber to be merely an alleged criminal, because no court trial has adjudicated his guilt of having set his own pants on fire. Nonetheless, last night the President told the nation that in meeting with BP executives today, he would be directing them to set aside up to $20,000,000,000.00 for payment of Gulf of Mexico oil leak claims.

Wow; no charges, no trial, no jury verdict, just the ex parte imposition of a potential corporate death sentence on nothing more than the say so of the Big Guy. The President has cited no federal statute that empowers him to reach into the BP pocket and seize its private funds. The reason for this absence of Speech citation is obvious - there is no lawful authority for Presidential confiscation millions of BP stockholders (mostly widows and orphans) retirement investments.

The road to dictatorship always starts with small extra-legal acts that go almost unnoticed and unprotested by the nation's lawmakers. In this presidency, our slide toward abject servitude began with one phone call. In February 2009, Mr. Obama fired the CEO of General Motors Corporation. Author Ben Stein wrote, that upon calling the White House to ascertain the specific federal law the President utilized in depriving this individual of his livelihood, he was told by the Press Office: "None Needed." Gentlemen, ladies and Georgette, that act of Chicago style thuggery is the very antithesis of the Rule of Law. So, be afraid, be very afraid.

John Wooden, Wizard of Westwood; R.I.P.

A Life well lived, indeed. Coach Wooden of Tinseltown, U.S.A. may have lived most of his years in Hollywood, but he never went all L.A. Cool. For all of Mr. Wooden's ninety-nine years, he never changed his fundamental values, stating whenever asked: "A life spent devoted to others is a meaningful life." and "One's success is best measured by achieving the maximum effort you have to give, whereas victory is merely an incidental outcome." Eternal words for sure.

This Time Israel did Mess Up the Bed Spread

In an earlier Post, your humble blogger congratulated the Israeli Defense Forces for its mafia style hit on an enemy combatant in a Dubai hotel suite, which was re-rented to another hotel guest without even a special cleaning. Not so yesterday. Regrettably, more than a dozen agent provocateurs were killed by the Israeli commandos who repelled onto the deck of the Turkish blockade runner. As the Esteemed One would say: "The Israelis acted stupidly."

It appears quite obvious that a PR trap was set by these "Palestinian Humanitarian Aid" deliverers. The IDF didn't just fall into it, instead, they jumped in feet first, giving their enemies bloody photos of martyrs aplenty. My very preliminary conclusion is that the Israeli leaders did not want a Waco style stand-off to continue unresolved for weeks or longer, while these ships continued to buzz around the Gaza Strip blockade boundary causing the Israeli Navy to remain at high alert enforcing this "No sail zone". Well, they did achieve a prompt end to this peaceable stand-off. The world condemnations and recriminations, however, will go on for years to come.

Self defense assertions by the IDFs are only accurate AFTER their commandos jumped these ships, sailing in international waters, and having taken no hostile actions prior to the 4:00 a.m. surprise visit. When useful fools want to die for their cause, you do not hand them a loaded gun. Just saying ...