Friday Roundtable: Rights Posted by Morrisseyweb on Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 10:36:47 PM Category: FEATURED

As I was reminded by the lovely lady taking my money at the coffee shop, today is Friday.  I learned a few things this week, the first and probably most important of which is not to let your kid fly a hot air balloon without parental supervision.  That, and don't name your kid "Falcon."  That's just not right.  Oh, and that if you're chasing a "balloon boy," at least make sure he's actually in the thing, you know what I mean?   Then apparently the Finnish government has decided that high-speed internet access is...wait for it...a right.  Wow.  Really?  I have a right to high speed internet?  Super.  Sadly enough, it wouldn't help you out much if you're Swedish, though.  Seems someone put a comma where a dot should be in the main registry for the".se" top level domain and out went the entire Swedish internet.  Sometimes, you just gotta fight for your rights.  This is the same country where they're  burning rabbits for heat.  What will they think of next? That its your right to own a professional football team? However, such a right, should it be granted, would be a little late for old Rush Limbaugh - apparently an avid Steelers fan.  Seems he's been blackballed out of a proposed ownership group looking to purchase the St. Louis Rams - once the greatest show on turf, but now a moribund team going no where because his participation had become a distraction.  Hard to say if he actually even wanted a stake or if he was doing a little shameless self-promotion, but the end result is that he will not be part of making a bid AND his radio show has been given a whole slew of new listeners.   It's funny, I thought that we had a right of free speech and lived in a capitalistic society where if you have the money you can, you know, buy things you want.    In other football news, one of the other horrendous teams out there - the Oakland Raiders - are so terrible, even the Onion spoofed them in a piece entitled, "Raiders Achieve First Down."  Now, this is brilliant parody: "In an improbable display of competence and a basic execution of football fundamentals, the Oakland Raiders stunned the football world Sunday when running back Michael Bush miraculously rushed for three yards against the Giants and succeeded in converting a first down."  In some parts of the world, soccer is called football, so I'll throw some kudos out to the US Soccer team here: For the 6th straight time, the US has won the right to participate in next years' World Cup. The Major League Championship series have finally gotten underway, but sadly enough for we Red Sox fans, there will be no joy in Mudville this year.  To go from needing one more out to force a game 4 to packing suitcases for the winter is a bit hard to take when you've become somewhat accustomed to seeing your team pull their skinny out time and time again.  It's more than a little reality slap for some.  Last week I cautioned my fellow Sox fans not to be wishing too hard for a three-game series, because that's an edge that cuts both ways. So we find ourselves with the Yankees/Angels and the Dodgers/Phillies.  Hard to imagine, but this is the first time the Angels have ever matched up with the Yankees in the history of the LCS; over on the senior side, we have last years contestants for the pennant.  So, if a Yankees/Mets World Series is a "subway" series, would an Angels/Dodgers series be a Freeway series?  I think I'd like to see an Angels/Phillies series, myself.  One, because I hate the Yankees, but two for the Phillies to have a shot to not only win another series but back to back titles after going some 125 years winning only once?  And people thought the Red Sox winning it all was something.  It's not like I don't like the Dodgers, but Joe Torre has said he's probably going to retire after his contract expires next year and Frank McCourt and his wife, Dodgers CEO Jamie, have filed for divorce (which likely has something to do with Torre's decision).  So, I'm guessing the team from LA (you know the one that doesn't have to specify which city they actually play in) will be a little worse for the wear given California is a community property state, even though Frank is the "sole" owner of the Dodgers it would seem Jamie by law has a right to HALF.  Seems likely then that the team goes up for sale.  The McCourts have been married since 1979, they seem to have the world by the berries.  Hard to imagine what went wrong.  I wonder if Manny had something to do with it.   Reminds me of a joke - why bother getting married, why not go find a woman you hate and buy her a baseball team? It's not too often you'll see me writing here about horse racing, but this is just too classic to pass up.  So, Australian horse racing officials decided it would be a great idea to run something called "the Midget Cup" where three little people, dressed as jockeys are carried piggyback.  Kind of reminds me of the "dwarf tossing" routine.  See, I guess I'm not offended so much by the activity, I just don't get it.  I mean, the purpose was to promote some carnival or other.  How does that do it?  I suppose it gets schmucks like me talking about it, but then again, I'm not in Australia nor am I more likely to go to a carnival because someone held a midget race.  So, I guess I'm hard to sway with cheap promotion.  RIGHT!  Anyone who knows me knows that I am ALL ABOUT shameless huckstering.   And finally, a remembrance.  From my childhood, I remember Captain Lou Albano and more than a little shameless huckstering on his part.  Captain Lou passed away this week at age 76.  There will be many of my age who remember him in the Cyndi Lauper videos.  I remember a late 1970's show on WHDH radio in Boston called "The Sports Huddle" where Eddie Andelman would have all kinds of weird stuff going on, including Lou.  RIP Captain Lou. Have a great Friday, Gabbers.  Thanks for sharing a part of it with me.