Ramblin' Gamblin' Man

Charlie Hustle told Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann that "I bet on my team every night," so here's a bonus edition of This Week's Discussion Question:

Is there a dumber guy on the planet than Pete Rose?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Well, there's..." or "And...".

Discuss.

Rear View Mirror

Former baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn passed away today at the age of 80.

We at TWDQ HQ thank him for coining the phrase "in the best interests of baseball" and will always fondly remember him sitting umbrella-less in the pouring rain at a prime-time NLCS tilt, trying to a) pretend it wasn't raining and b) decide if he wanted to take the heat from the network if he did the sensible thing and pulled the players off the field.

Mr. Kuhn's tenure takes us back to another much-reviled leader from that era, prompting This Week's Discussion Question:

How frightening is the thought that, compared to the current occupants of their respective offices, the reigns of Bowie Kuhn and Dick Nixon look positively rosy?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Hey, the guy DID suspend George Steinbrenner" or curling into a fetal position and trembling.

Discuss.

All Apologies

Irving Lewis "Scooter" Libby batted 1 for 5 today in court and the reaction of many on the right to Scooter's conviction on four counts of perjury and obstructing justice prompts This Week's Discussion Question:

Considering how many people have forgotten what a big deal perjury was when President Clinton was the perjurer-in-question, might there indeed be something to Scooter's "faulty memory" claim?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Boy, a guy coulda made a bundle selling fainting couches today" or "I wonder if Vice President Cheney can get assigned a room at Walter Reed, Building 18 while he recovers from his blood clot?"

Discuss.

What the World Needs Now...

After a cursory low-volume spin in the office today and a louder sampling of the first handful of songs on this on the drive home, we arrive at This Week's Discussion Question:

Why does anyone bother with "American Idol" when this giant walks the earth?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Whoa!" or "American what?"

Discuss.

Hot in Here

When learning that his daughter's seventh-grade science class would be viewing "An Inconvenient Truth," a Washington-state parent said, "No, you will not teach or show that propagandist Al Gore video to my child, blaming our nation -- the greatest nation ever to exist on this planet -- for global warming."

The story goes on to say "His angry e-mail, along with complaints from a few other parents, stopped the film from being shown" and that the teacher was sent a disciplinary letter for "not following school board rules that require her to seek written permission to present 'controversial' materials in class."

Here's This Week's Discussion Question:

Should the school board also discipline art teachers for presenting the controversial description of "black" actually being black and "white" being white?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Don't forget that heresy about 'up' and 'down' in physics class" or "Oh, for....Honey? Do we have more vodka?"

Discuss.

I Don't Believe You

They're having a bit of trouble filling the jury box for Scooter Libby's perjury trial, since many potential jurors are being excused "for their strong views on the Bush administration, the Iraq war, or other elements of the case." The story says "Many of the residents of the largely Democratic city (Washington, D.C.) said they would have a hard time finding Libby's former boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, a credible witness if he were called to testify as expected."

So here's another bonus edition of This Week's Discussion Question:

How screwed are you if everyone thinks your star witness is a big, fat liar?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Credible? I'd sneak a peek out the window if he told me it was sunny" or "Three posts in one day, Dave? What's up?"

Discuss.

Who Woulda Thunk It?

Today Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) announced that she's running for president in 2008, providing fodder for a bonus edition of This Week's Discussion Question:

Wow! Who saw that coming?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Yawn" or "Are you happy now, Russert?"

Discuss.

Neighborhood Bully

Last week we saw this headline at Yahoo News: Bob Dylan bores me to tears -- Simon Cowell. The story cites an interview in the February issue of Playboy, in which Cowell says he never bought a Dylan album and would "plug my ears and run in the other direction" if he were to see a 21-year-old Dylan singing "Blowin' in the Wind."

It makes perfect sense to us here at TWDQ, prompting This Week's Discussion Question:

Could anyone who owned a Dylan album possibly have created American Idol?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Yet you sat there and listened to William Hung?" or "What the world needs now is another pop singer like I need a hole in my head."

Discuss.

Since You Asked

Saturday, in response to critics of his plan to escalate the war in Iraq, the President said, "To oppose everything while proposing nothing is irresponsible." Because to propose nothing would be irresponsible, we at TWDQ would like to interrupt This Week's Discussion Question to offer one up:

Resign. Now. You AND the Vice President. Now. Before you send another 20,000 American men and women into the meat grinder to stall for time so you don't go down in history as another president who had to helicopter the last Americans off the rooftops in a war zone. Now. Before you start poking Iran and Syria with sharp sticks to provoke yet another war, though we fear you've already started doing that. Now. Before Congress decides we ought to take a good hard look at getting behind the International Criminal Court.

Resign. Now.

There's your proposal, sir.

Thank you. We now return you to our regular discussion.

Run For Your Life

In a recent letter to supporters, Rep. Virgil H. Goode (R-VA) warned, "The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran" and "I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped."

We'll give you a second to shake your head, read that again, and shake your head once more before we pose This Week's Discussion Question:

Between this guy and former Senator George "Macaca" Allen, if you were a Virginian, would you admit it?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Forget immigration, how can we get dumbasses like this guy to emigrate?" or "Hey! Don't forget about our 'precious bodily fluids'!"

Discuss.

Crying

Speaking at a leadership forum, former President George H.W. Bush "broke down in tears as he cited his son, Gov. Jeb Bush, as an example of leadership."

Here's This Week's Discussion Question:

Wouldn't you think he'd be more likely to weep about the leadership example of another son?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into uncontrollable sobbing your own self.

Discuss.

Courting the Lizard-Brain Vote

Republican strategist Ed Rogers appeared on "Hardball" Tuesday night and said this:

DAVID SHUSTER: Ed, Barack Obama‘s going up to New Hampshire. He‘s somebody I mentioned Republicans should be careful of. He‘s a great speaker...

ROGERS: Please, help me, David. Somebody that underestimates Barack Hussein Obama. Please. I mean, this man is a blank canvas where people project their desires and their ideal candidate because nobody knows anything about him. And he has a deep voice...

Here's This Week's Discussion Question:

From this exchange, may we assume that you will be referring to all '08 presidential hopefuls by their full names?

(Here's a helpful list for you, Ed: Joseph Robinette Biden, Samuel Dale Brownback, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rudolph William Louis Giuliani, John Sidney McCain, Willard Mitt Romney, Thomas James Vilsack, and the erstwhile candidacy of William Harrison Frist.)

We mean, you can't be singling out Sen. Obama simply because his middle name happens to be "Hussein," right?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Boy, every time you think these guys have gone as low as they can go, they dig another level" or "He forgot to mention that he was a member of the 'Democrat' party."

Discuss.

Update: How could we have forgotten Newton Leroy Gingrich?

Up, Up, and Away

Yeah, we know it's probably already happened, but the story about a boycott of US Airways as a result of six Muslim imams being removed from a flight prompts This Week's Discussion Question:

Which cable news idiot will be the first to suggest that fewer Muslims flying would be a great idea?

Please keep the discussion civil and remember that Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly are even money on this one.

Discuss.

Gimme a head with hair...

Here's the Congresswoman-elect from my district on a post-election news program.

As a Minnesota State Senator, she was the driving force behind several unsuccessful attempts to get an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment on the ballot, bringing us to This Week's Discussion Question:

Is Michele's coiffure the work of :

a) a hairdresser who is definitely NOT gay,

or

b) a gay hairdresser exacting a delicious bit of revenge?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Doesn't she own a mirror?" or shouting out requests for "Love Shack" or "Rock Lobster."

Discuss.

A New World Record

Jonah Goldberg's op-ed piece in Tuesday's Minneapolis StarTribune prompts This Week's Discussion Question:

What was the previous world record for Stupid per Column Inch?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "I think we're looking at a new Wrong per Column Inch title, too" or "How's about you enlisting, Jonah?"

Discuss.


Update: The Strib link expired, so I changed it to point at the L.A. Times website, from whence this stuff emanates.

Dumb like a FOX

With a week of League Championship Series and a couple of World Series games in the books, here's This Week's Discussion Question:

Why does MLB continue to let FOX carry such sacred programming?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into:

• Has that stupid camera in the dirt in front of home plate ever shed new insight on any play?

• Could we skip the ultra close-ups of the hitter and pitcher and maybe see a catcher put down signs?

• Enough with the praying fans already!

• How could Tim McCarver, who once said, "Bob Gibson is the luckiest pitcher I know. He always pitches on the days when the other team doesn't score any runs" be so incredibly dull?

Discuss.

Land of the Free, Home of the Bullies

Today, the President signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, allowing him "to 'interpret the meaning and application' of international standards for prisoner treatment, a provision intended to allow him to authorize aggressive interrogation methods that might otherwise be seen as illegal by international courts."

It also "eliminates some of the rights defendants are usually guaranteed under U.S. law." Like habeus corpus.

Here's This Week's Discussion Question:

What happened to America?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into sobbing or Tourette's-like outbursts of profanity.

Discuss.

Requiem

After the Twins were swept by the A's this afternoon in the ALDS, our next TWDQ was going to be "What the hell happened?" but tonight's news elicits a more somber This Week's Discussion Question:

Was there ever a more gracious and classy guy than John "Buck" O'Neil?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Yes," because you'd be wrong.

Requiescat in pace.

This Time It's For Real

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iraqi leaders that "they have limited time to settle their differences," prompting This Week's Discussion Question:

Or what?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Don't make me stop this car!" or "Because The Decider decided, that's why."

Discuss.

Little Piranhas

The Minnesota Twins overtook the Detroit Tigers to snatch the AL Central title in this afternoon's unbelievable conclusion to the regular season. Now that things have calmed down at TWDQ HQ, here's This Week's Discussion Question:

Isn't this fun?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Go A's!"

Discuss.