Mobile Post 9

Hello again...

My football update is as follows:

Colts won despite having only half a team.  Yay.  My love affair with Pierre Garçon is over.  He makes some spectacular catches and is fast as hell.  But he's unreliable to actually CATCH the ball.  Started with the famous drop in the Super Bowl... had he actually made that catch odds are the Colts may have won the game.  The Colts were up 10-3 on New Orleans in the second quarter and it was 3rd and long... Peyton passed it over the middle to Garçon who dropped it.  Had he made the catch the drive would have continued and odds are they would have scored putting them up 17-3 (ok maybe only 13-3).  But he didn't... he dropped it.  New Orleans got the ball back, drove down the field and scored.  The whole dynamic of the game changed.  Coming into this season things haven't changed.  He makes an amazing catch then drops an easy pass.  Amazing catch, easy drop.  Yeah we're EXTREMELY short-handed at wide-receiver, but at least for me the rose is gone off the bloom for Garçon.

The Washington Redskins are the most idiotic team in the history of idiotic teams.  Ok maybe I'm exaggerating but seriously.  I told you a few posts back about all the hubbub about Haynesworth and training camp... well the idiocy continues.  The Redskins signed Donovan McNabb... ok not too bad... he's a veteran QB who's still got some life in him (he's 33)... They paid him a nice little sum of money to make him the face of the franchise.  Great.  Except then they go and bench him with 2 minutes left in the game.  Why?  Well there was a litany of "reasons"... They said he didn't know the 2 minute offense well enough... They said he wasn't in shape to run the 2 minute offense... They said his hamstring was acting up... Really?  Of course what happened?  Rex Grossman came in and on his 3rd play fumbles the ball sealing the loss.  So what do they do for the QB they just benched?  They give him a 5 year, $78million contract extension.  What the ever loving fuck??? A> If he's the QB of the next 5 years why the hell are you benching him at the most important part of the game?  B> 5 years??? The guy's 33 now... he's a QB who in known for his escapability and movement, how well do you think he's going to be moving in 4 or 5 years? 

Finally... I lost in fantasy football.  My first loss of the year.  Got my ass handed to me.

ok... on to other things because I know no one who reads my blog actually cares about football...

Prince William and Kate Middleton are engaged.  This may be slightly blasphemous to say as an Irishman but... I kinda like William and Harry, Harry more than William but anyway.  Kate seems like she's a nice girl.  I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if Charles (who I still think is a world-class twit) steps aside in like 5 years and allows the throne to pass directly to William.  He and Harry are much more Diana than Charles.  Thank god.

In Politics, the fall out from the Tea Party has begun... Rand Paul won the Kentucky Senate seat as a Tea Party Republican and has already talked about cutting the budget, including, *gasp* defense spending.  Traditional Republican John McCain has called that move "isolationist" and "protectionist"... In Alaska it looks like Lisa Murkowski is actually going to beat Tea Party Republican Joe Miller and his backer Sarah Palin.  Murkowski ripped into Palin saying she lacked "leadership qualities, that intellectual curiosity" when saying she wouldn't support Palin as president.  Ouch.  Keep it up Republicans.  Cannibalism is fun to watch.

To my Muslim friends... Hajj is going on now in Saudi Arabia.  The pilgrimage is one of Five Pillars of Islam that all muslims are able to are expected to make the pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime.  Starting on the 8th day of Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic year, perform many rites all in a specific order.  First they circle the Kaaba, a giant cube in the center of Mecca, 7 times counter-clockwise.  Next they travel to Mina and spend a day in meditation and prayer at Mt Arafat, where Muhammad gave his last sermon.  At sundown they begin the ritualistic stoning of the devil, Ramy al-Jamarat, as they throw pebbles at a wall symbolizing the devil.  There's three stone walls the pilgrims pass and throw rocks at.  I always learned they were pillars but apparently the Saudi's replaced the pillars with walls because people's aim wasn't too good and they were missing the pillars and hitting people on the other side.  Next up is the sacrifice.  In the Bible (and of course the Koran) God orders Abraham to sacrifice his son to prove his obedience to God.  When Abraham agrees to do it, God replaces his son with a ram (yay!).  The Hajji's next task is to commemorate that by sacrificing a sheep.  Traditionally the pilgrim did it himself or supervised it (because let's face it, we're all not butchers!)... today pilgrims can purchase a voucher saying a butcher will slaughter a sheep for them.  The meat is then divided up and sent off to a charity to feed needy people.  Pilgrims revisit the big cube and go around it another 7 times... then they go and stone the devils again.  If they don't get out of town before sundown, they have to stay and stone the devils again the next day before they leave.  Phew.

Now I'm not a religious guy but I am a history buff and I love the rites of religions... honestly I think that's why I stayed in the church as long as I did (I was Episcopalian/Anglican).  Islam is fascinating to me even if I don't believe any of it.

Ok well this turned out longer than I anticipated... so I'll talk to you all later...

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JP