Saturday, May 30, 2009

First Round of the Year

I told myself that I was going to play more golf this year than the 2 rounds I managed last year. I know I will exceed that amount but I certainly don't feel the need to play every weekend. Part of it is a money thing and part of it is wanting to be capable in the game but just not having a burning passion to really get a lot better. Every time I play someone says, "You know, if you played more you would be really good." That's all I really need right there. Sometimes just knowing that you CAN do something is more important than actually doing it.

So, I played at one of my favorite area courses today - Gateway National - home of last year's fantasy football weekend tournament. It was raining as we drove out there but once we got to the course it never rained again. The sun came out about halfway through the front 9 and it turned out to be a gorgeous day. The course was very soggy in most places so that was definitely an added challenge. This was also the first time this year that I had even swung a club so being able to go to the practice range before we played was very helpful in working out a couple kinks.

I started out with a great drive on the first hole which really helps take care of the jitters - especially when you are playing with a co-worker who is probably 10 strokes better than me on an average day and his ex-Marine buddy who can also play. I ended up with a double bogey on the first hole but didn't have a score higher than 6 on the front 9. Consistency like that after not playing for 8 or 9 months is a good feeling. Best shots of the day came on 16 and 17. I drove the ball into the upslope of a grass bunker and had a side/uphill lie with a very awkward stance. The green was 150 yards away with a huge lake to the left. I made much better contact with the ball than I expected and landed on the green, but of course I three-putted for a bogey. The 17th was a 165-yard par 3. I took a 6-iron and landed it within 10 feet of the cup which I promptly made for my one birdie on the day. Overall, I shot 46-47 which I will definitely take for the first round of the year. The 67-year old ex-Marine shot an 84. If I can be anywhere close to that in 31 years I will be a very happy guy.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

"Meet the Press" Frustration

Here is what I hate most about the Left...everything is our fault. There is an implicit...and sometimes explicit...desire to blame America for everything bad that happens to it. Why? I think when you are a bleeding heart liberal you do not believe in absolute truth. Remember the furor over Bush using the term "evildoer"? "How dare he? Who is he to call someone else evil?" Of course they say that because if you don't believe in absolute truth then you don't really believe in good and evil. What that means is that if someone commits an "evil" act, then we need to figure out why they did that. What made this poor innocent creature choose an action so obviously out of character? Their answer invariably comes back to, "Well, the US must be responsible. After all, if this person is angry with us, we must have given them a reason."

I won't use the language on this blog which that line of thinking arouses. I will say this...that line of "reasoning" will insure the end of this country and will make us more vulnerable than we have ever been. If you are more interested in playing armchair psychiatrist than actually going out and getting the bad guys then you deserve what you get. This is the real world. It's not a university classroom and it's not the campaign trail. There are people who want to kill you...not because of anything you have done to them...but just because you exist. That is called evil and it's a lot more real than thinking that closing Gitmo is going to make us safer.

How can Obama stand there and say that Gitmo has made us less safe? That it is helping in the recruitment of new terrorists? How does he know? Is there a recent CNN poll that surveyed 700 Al Qaeda members and determined that 54% of them became terrorists in the last two years because of a prison in Cuba? That is pure political garbage backed up by zero facts. But of course this administration wouldn't know a fact if it subsidized it into existence. Last I checked, the 9/11 hijackers hated this country and wanted innocent Americans dead long before the idea of Gitmo was ever conceived. I'm glad Cheney spoke up and said something. Someone has to stand up to this torrent of misleading (is that the right word, Nancy?) half-truths.