Tiger Bombers

I wonder if any of these young women on American Idol who rush up and kiss Steven Tyler know that he is going to be 63 in March.

You have to hand it to him; he can still get hot women chasing him around.

He can’t sing the National Anthem though. This much he proved before the AFC Championship Game last weekend.

I have only spoken of football once since I have been writing this blog for a year now. I do root for the NY Football Giants and am excited to see them in the Super Bowl for the 5^th time next weekend in a rematch with the New England Patriots.
The Giants beat the Pats in a regular season match this year and they are pretty much on fire. While Tom Brady has been a machine for his career, he doesn’t play defense and the Pats pass defense is one of the worst in the league.
That’s not to say that Giants secondary is the best either. They have been banged up all year long. But their pass rush is good enough to keep Brady on his toes. If the Giants can establish a run game, they’ll win. Otherwise, it’s anyone’s guess.

So yes, it’s been a year since I have been writing this blog now. It has actually reached into 43 different countries thus far and I haven’t said anything of importance or relevance yet except to talk about Haley Reinhart last year on American Idol and Christina Aguilera’s fluorescent hair.

The countdown is now underway to Spring Training in MLB. The big news of the week was that free agent Prince Fielder signed a 9-year 214-million dollar deal with the Detroit Tigers, who again become the favorite to win the AL Central Division. The Tigers did lose a key player in Victor Martinez for the year to an ACL injury. He is a .330 hitter who drove in 106 runs last year. Fielder isn’t quite the hitter that he is. But he is a great replacement. The move does make the Tigers stronger for many more years though and it clearly is a long-term plan that they have.
This will mean that the AL’s leading hitter, Miguel Cabrera, will need to move to 3^rd base. Who knows what that now means for Brandon Inge who was playing there. But that’s just tough noogies for him because any team would happily replace anyone they had with Cabrera if given the opportunity.

My new puppy, Sasha, is now 3 months old. In the two weeks that I have had her she has nearly grown twice her size. It’s sad in a way but she is still beautiful. Since I don’t have any work scheduled for about 6 weeks (another sad story) I do have plenty of time to train her and she is doing quite well in puppy school.

I have to say that I just wrote about two pages chronicling how this year has started off just where it left off for me last year. But I deleted it. It doesn’t serve much purpose. Let me remain positive.

On the MLB Network there is a new baseball trivia show. This is now the most awesome show in all of television. Currently, people outside of baseball circles are not competing, but that’s ok. I love baseball trivia and find that for as much as I think I know, this game is pretty tough. It’s played a little differently than one might think. It’s not a simple one question, one answer type of thing. There are categories which relate to lists of answers. For example a category could be named something like “Tiger Bombers.” Then the contestants will find out that they have to name as many Tigers who have hit 30 homeruns in a season as possible. Or it could be something like name the top ten all-time Tiger homerun leaders. It’s very tricky to do after one reels off the first few obvious ones.

For baseball fans, I highly recommend this show.

Ok, that’s all I have then so I’m

Done.

Hot, Humid and Happenin

Yes, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? Well, I just haven’t been feeling very chatty. Besides, there really isn’t a whole heck of a lot going on in Baseball and I haven’t done a hypnosis show since December 20^th and don’t have one on the schedule right now until March 3^rd.

But American Idol did start again, the Bachelor is back on and I got a puppy so there are some things to say.

American Idol did feature a baseball player on its opening night though. Former St. Louis Cardinal pitcher Joe Magrane has a daughter who passed her audition and helped provide an awkward moment on the show.
Shannon Magrane, 15 years old and 6 feet tall entered the judges chambers in Atlanta and shortly thereafter brought her family in with her including her dad who currently works for the MLB Network. After busting out her song Idol judge and former rocker Steven Tyler said its “hot, humid and happenin, just like your daughter.”

It was too funny. I wondered for a moment if her father was going to throw a water bottle or something at 90 mph towards him, but he sucked it up and didn’t say a word. After all, his daughter was moving on to Hollywood. Everyone, even a former MLB player, can be bought.

I watch the Bachelor because I like to make fun of all of the desperate women who try to find love on a TV show. I do envy, however, every single dude that gets to play the Bachelor. He has 25 women at his feet and he knows pretty much that they all want him. This season the guy who is the Bachelor has a bumper crop of women though and I do like to try to predict who will be in the final four.
If you watch this show I’ll mention my final five. I’m having a tough time chopping down the last one because he is a self-professed fan of brunettes and the best one there is a blond.
So here it goes briefly…Courtney, Kacie B, Casey S, Emily and Nicki.

I hadn’t really been looking for a new dog yet but had been casually searching for Golden Retrievers online when I sent a link to some to a friend of mine to see. They were pure-bred dogs and I really was just window shopping. He wrote back and said, “don’t go that route, rescue a dog,” and sent me a link to Petfinders.com and a page which had Goldens on it. I immediately saw the cutest little puppy face I had seen in quite some time and saw that she was mixed with Siberian Husky, a breed I also favor.
I instantly sent a note and after a few notes back and forth I drove down to W. Virginia two days later to get her. I have named her Sasha. She has her own Facebook page already (Sasha Manlove) and since business is basically non-existent right now I have plenty of time to house train her and begin obedience training.

The move was a great one for me. The three months since my last dog Brother died was the longest that I have been without a pet since I can remember. It’s been lonely in here and now I am feeling a little better with her in the house.

That’s about all that I wanted to say except that I am doing a public show in Delaware for the first time this coming March 9^th at St. Marks HS in Wilmington. If you are interested in seeing my show just head over to www.firststatehypnosis.com for more details.

Done

Chalk Outlines

It seems as if ML MVP Ryan Braun is now under investigation for use of performance enhancing drugs, ESPN reports.
Braun was notified during the playoffs that he failed a test and potentially faces a 50-game suspension.
Braun claims that the charges are B.S. and a spokesman for him said that he will be completely exonerated.

I do hope that there was some sort of false positive though. This game doesn’t need any more scandals and especially centered on someone like Braun who has helped make baseball fun for Milwaukee fans and the Brewers fun to watch.

One of the memorable moments of this past year featuring Braun was when he was trying to complete an inside-the-park homerun and fell twice rounding thirdbase getting tagged out after the second fall. The next day his teammates drew chalk outlines where he fell as if it had been the location of a crime scene.

Hopefully MLB doesn’t have to draw a chalk outline around his career.

I spent a lot of time watching coverage of the Winter Meetings on the MLB channel.
The MLB channel is excellent for those who like baseball. They have some great analysis, great highlights, a fantastic statistics show and some great characters.

I always sort of thought that in some way it was a bit unfair that baseball players who earn millions of dollars during their playing careers can then just hop right in the TV booths and earn big dollars doing that after they retire. I always felt that those jobs were better suited for those who didn’t have the physical talents to play…LIKE ME, for example… and the players made better guests who could throw in an opinion now and then.
But I do have to say that MLB picked a couple of great characters to become regular analysts on the show. Kevin Millar, Mitch Williams and Sean Casey are all funny men and do have good insight and opinions about what they see. Harold Reynolds has been around for a while now and even Dan Plesac is decent. While not everyone they have brought through the studio is great, at least five guys don’t have me screaming at the screen that I can do better.

I take that back. I still could do better and certainly better than the regular dudes that generally host the shows.

I like to play poker but have rarely done so live except for the past four Sundays. I live near a place which recently opened up table games and with the US not so keen on online gambling this is the only place to go now.
I am not a gambler though. I have entered some free satellite tournaments hoping to advance to subsequent rounds where I could win money and then begin to turn that into more.
What I have found interesting is the number of people in this place at 6 am when I have to go to register to play for the 9am tournament. And there are people sleeping in chairs, eating, playing cards, slots, etc., much like we would find if we went to Atlantic City or Las Vegas.
I just find it a little strange to be right in my back yard though. Can the mob be far behind here in Delaware?

The show schedule is still very slow. I have only one more show booked for the balance of the year and then the start of the year is not looking so promising right now either. This does mean that I have to dig deep and find other things to do to generate revenue.
I seriously can’t wait for an administration change to one which is simply friendlier to business so that businesses can start making progress again. That is all that I will say from my stump currently. It is the holiday season and I swear that I just want to be jolly.

I would be jollier with a couple of new puppies. But I still can’t do it and these last 2 months without dogs in my life have been the longest since I was a little kid.

I’ll be 50 years old next Sunday. The start of my “Golden” years. Sure…HAHA. It seems like they will be more “Copper” than anything but at least I’ll have ten years to make them golden and hopefully my 60’s will be my “Retirement” years.

Done

Great Players, Great People

The MLB winter meetings are under way in Dallas and there has been a little bit of action although perhaps not as much as I might like to see.

Prior to the start of the meetings my team, the Mets, allowed their star shortstop Jose Reyes to escape NY and head to Miami to join the Marlins. He signed a 6-year, 106-million dollar contract and stays in the same division as the team that signed him and raised him.
This particular deal stings as a Mets fan. Reyes was the catalyst of the club and had a great year leading the league in hitting even though he missed 29 games. He did miss a bunch of games over the past few years so since he is approaching 30 that was getting to be a concern. But it was still a risk worth taking for the Mets to keep him in NY. Obviously the Marlins thought the risk was worthwhile.
The Mets simply have financial issues since the team owners were ripped off by Bernie Madoff. But this is exactly why Mets fans want the Wilpons to sell the team to somebody financially in a better situation.

The real big news happened last night though when the Marlins, preparing to play ball in a brand new stadium with a retractable roof, offered St. Louis Cardinal firstbaseman Albert Pujols a ten-year deal reportedly worth 220 million dollars. I did just hear that the Cardinals made a counter offer although those terms were not released. There has not been any comment from Pujols or his agent at this time. There apparently is a hang up over a no-trade clause that Pujols wants but the Marlins will not give because of the length of the contract.
Frankly I would like to see Pujols stay in St. Louis. This isn’t because he would be in the same division as the Mets now but rather because St. Louis is such a great baseball city and Pujols is one of those future hall of famers that I hold in high regards such as Stan Musial, also a Cardinal, or Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle who played his entire career with one team. It’s a trivial point really, but when players who make the Hall of Fame play with a bunch of teams what team hat do they put on the plaque? That question always gets asked. It should be a no-brainer, in my opinion.

By the way, that 22 million a year would not even make Pujols the highest paid first baseman in baseball. That honor goes to the Phillies Ryan Howard who gets 25 million a year and the Yankees Mark Teixera who, I believe, is at 23 million.
That is despite Pujols arguably being the greatest player in this particular era.

There is still no word about the other major free agent out there, Prince Fielder. Beyond that some people claim that Texas Ranger pitcher C.J. Wilson is a key free agent, but he choked hard in the playoffs and World Series so I don’t see teams piling up to pay him boatloads of money. There was a rumor that the Rangers offered him a 4-year 60-million dollar deal as a counter-offer to a rumored 6-year deal from a “nameless” team that his agent floated out there. But then my baseball hero Nolan Ryan, CEO and President of the Rangers, said that it was news to him.

I do have a hunch that if Pujols stays in St. Louis, the Marlins make a play for Fielder. It seems to make a bunch of sense since they could probably get him for less and that less would still be much more than Fielder might get in other cities.

Does anyone care that the NBA is going to play a shortened season this year since they have worked out that labor agreement? Not me. I’m not a basketball fan anyway with one major exception.
In my state, Delaware, we have one of the greatest female basketball players in the country, if not the world. Her name is Elena Delle Donne.
I’ve been able to watch this young lady play since her 8^th grade season at Ursuline Academy in Wilmington, DE.
Delle Donne was a phenom about whom people were talking before I had a chance to see her in school. She was part of a couple of AAU National Championship teams and then won a few state championships with her Ursuline team.
Elena is a 6-5 forward who might have one of the best shots in ALL of basketball, and that would include professional men as well.
She is also simply a class act and if you search her name you can find out a lot more about her.
While at Ursuline she was courted by legendary college women’s basketball coaches who came to Wilmington to watch her play and they included Gino Auriemma from Connecticut and Pat Summit from Tennessee.
She originally decided to go to UConn but then stayed here in Delaware and was ineligible to play during her freshman year playing volleyball instead.
Now she is in her 3^rd year playing basketball at UD and had lead the team to its best start in school history and its first-ever top-25 national ranking.
This past year she was on the US team that won the gold medal in the World Cup or whatever it was called and she should be a candidate to make the Olympic team for 2012.
I finally had a chance to watch her play at the collegiate level the other day and without a video camera in my hands like I had for all of those years while she was in high school while working with my video company.
So what happens? The Blue Hens win, of course, but she gets rested by the coach for too much of the game. There are probably 3000 people in the stands most of whom would not have even been there if she wasn’t on the team (and no offense to the other girls on the team a few of whom I know also.) The stadium is selling food, drinks and merchandise on top of the tickets and she gets rotated in and out like one of the regular players.
Meanwhile she is chasing a national scoring championship also and ended up short of her average (30.4) for the game (23.)
The guy sitting next to me is trying to tell me all of these stories about Elena, all of which I knew (not that I am a personal friend or anything but I’ve just heard them since I’ve been around for years.) Now he is pissed off because the coach is resting her. This guy came all the way up from GEORGIA to watch her play in this particular game! He is calling the coach all sorts of names and I’m trying not to laugh but at the same time I agree with him.
He makes one real great point that I have made over the years and it’s that she is getting penalized for being too good. Here she has a chance to win a scoring championship that she deserves to win because she works hard and is talented but to “make it fair” for the others or to spread around playing time, Elena gets benched. We both agreed that the other players who didn’t get a lot of playing time should have gotten rotated in to get a chance to play with Elena since she makes all of them better on the court.
The same guy, Ralph was his name, also expands on his point and says that we keep doing this in America too. When somebody succeeds we chop them down. We tax them more, we regulate them more and do whatever it takes to “even the playing field” so everyone else can have more, or whatever the lame excuse is.  

I agreed with him whole heartedly.

The irony is, however, that Elena Delle Donne, just like many others I have met who are successful and talented, is also very humble. She is completely aware of her gifts and is as grateful for them as anyone can be. (That story of why is also out there and one which is not necessary for me to write here.) No one would hear her complain that because she is in that “one percent” of people who are blessed with her level of talent that others are trying (whether intentionally or not) to keep her even with the others around her.  

I try to surround myself with people who want to move forward and succeed because they work harder and overcome obstacles. I have a low tolerance for those who are jealous of what anyone else has and believes things should be taken from them just to “make it fair.”

Not that the UD coach is really doing this, mind you. She is keenly aware of what Elena Delle Donne is doing for her career right now. In actuality the team had a game the following night and rotating players wasn’t a bad thing to do with a big lead for the Blue Hens. But this was just a great time to talk about someone special and also make a broader point at the same time. See how clever I can be once every other month or so?

Done

Latvians

It is a disgrace that I have not posted here in almost two weeks now. I apologize to those of you who follow this for whatever reason you do.

Because I am a hypnotist I have this odd, niche, cult following around the world. It’s not large but it’s certainly diverse and definitely loyal and growing.
This blog has been read (more than just random accidental times) by people in 31 different countries now. Some of them also found their way here, and vice versa, because of the filthy podcast show I produce, which has invaded 55 countries now.
It doesn’t really matter; I find it interesting and amusing.

The Latvian Flag (for our Latvian followers, of course)

So since the hypnotism followers want to read about that subject, I’ll start there for this.

Obviously a hypnosis show requires volunteers. Well, what happens when no one wants to volunteer?
I’ve had occasions where in a crowd of 50 people or so at a party where there was a sever lack of volunteers to the point where only one hand was raised. But last week I did an event, a smaller one to be sure, where absolutely nobody wanted any part of it.

Normally what this means is that I have to take extra time in the introduction portion of the show to explain more about hypnosis and talk about the myths that everyone has heard and dispel them. Then I can usually pull enough people up on stage to have a successful show. I know that they won’t all stay until the end, but I can at least have a good show.

But this particular evening not a single soul was going to get up on stage and maybe one person performed well during the suggestibility tests.

This was an issue and one which I let the small crowd know was an issue.

But, telling them that was part of what I then needed to do to pull off what happened.

The show was then described as a demonstration for those in the audience and a chance for people to de-stress a little bit and “practice” to see if perhaps hypnosis would work for them for some other reason at a future point in time.

All of the audience except for two of them then participated right in the chairs in which they were sitting. From there, I just did my regular show and half of the crowd that started the induction process ended up being the stars of the show for the entire show.

It was tricky, but it was necessary and it paid off big time. The group that brought me there scheduled me for a return visit next year.

The show schedule is still very slow right now. I am hoping that some company’s move parties to January to take advantage of lower venue rates. But we’ll see. I think I’ll have to focus harder on teaching and doing some more hypnotherapy until we get people who know how to run an economy back in charge around here.

It’s that dead time of the baseball year where we are now waiting for the winter meetings to heat up and hopefully we will see some hot and heavy trading action. This hasn’t been the case recently since players are locked up in contracts that make it nearly impossible to trade people at this time of the year.
All of the awards are out now. If you’re a baseball fan you know who they are, of course. The only real surprise to me was that Tiger’s pitcher Justin Verlander won the MVP award. On the same team you had the AL’s batting leader in Miguel Cabrera who plays every day. Granted Verlander with the 24-5 record and the pitching Triple Crown winner was valuable but I just think the MVP has to go to a position player.

Let’s see…well, we’re in holiday season now. For years I had taken the last two weeks of the year off to relax and enjoy the season. During recent years I have kept my schedule open so that I could book shows.
The main thing that I do like to do is try to stay away from the news. It’s very difficult since I am glued to headlines and news like it’s a job for me. But because it is by the time the end of the year comes around I get so depressed and overwhelmed because of all of that negativity. So I turn it off whenever and wherever I can.

On a personal note, I am a completely single dude now and will be 50 in December. I can’t tell you how awful this really is. I suppose it’s better than being in a horrible relationship but knowing that it’s pretty much over as far as a dating or relationship life is concerned is rather tough.
I have tried to put myself out there a bit. But frankly I can’t stand the process. I hate having to tell the same story over and over again and getting judged about how I look and what I do and what I say and what I write.
One of the reasons I started the dungeon show was to talk about all of that nonsense and make fun of it and ridicule it and bash it and do so without a care about what people think my opinion of it is.
I said long ago that my last relationship was going to be my last whether it lasted forever or not. I’m pretty sure I am going to stand by that. I guess maybe someone might come along and sweep me off of my feet. But the reality is that I’m 49 going on 50, not 29 going on 30. Sure you might think that there is still plenty of time and plenty of people, but the real world reality is much different, especially here where I live where its just awful…freaking awful.

Well, that’s it. I’m going to try to write more and not leave my Algerian and Latvian followers disappointed.

Done.

Times They Are A Changin

There are a couple of interesting big changes on the horizon in Major League Baseball.

First, the Houston Astros were just sold and as an incentive to get a 70 million dollar discount on the sale, the new owner agreed to move the Astros from the NL Central division to the AL West division.
This now gives both leagues an even 15 teams each with 5 teams in each division.

The second change, still being negotiated, is the addition of two more wild card teams, one in each league, at the end of the year. The two wild card teams from each league would play a one-game playoff to determine the official wild card team and then the playoffs would resume as they have for over a decade now.

Naturally there are fans who expressed opposition to this. 30% of all teams now make the playoffs but I’m not so sure that just getting one more game and one more team is all that negative. I think it makes the wild card spot not as exciting to get because now in just one game the season could be over for that team. Currently the wild card team’s only disadvantage is that they don’t get home-field advantage for the first round, which is a best of 5 series.

This change in the league structure will, however, mean that interleague play will be year round. On days where every team plays it means that at least one interleague game will be played on that day.

Even now I’m still up in the air about interleague play. I’d sort of rather see the leagues compete within their own leagues. This was one of the topics that was always great for debate…which league was better?

I do sort of like seeing some of the geographic rivalries each year like the Mets and Yankkes, the Cubs and White Sox, for example. But I never really cared about the other matchups that end up unfolding. Who really cares about a Seattle vs Florida matchup?

Oh, I should say Seattle vs MIAMI matchup since the Marlins are now going their city name with the move to their new ballpark.

The Red Sox former manager Terry Francona has decided not to try to find a team to manage this year. It must be nice to be able to make that sort of decision, don’t you think?
There was talk that since former Red Sox GM Leo Epstein took the Cubs GM job that Francona might head there, but Dale Sveum just landed the Cubs managerial spot.

As expected Justin Verlander of the Tigers and Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers won the leagues Cy Young awards. Since both were pitching Triple Crown winners these were obvious choices.

No one cares about the Manager of the Year awards but they went to Joe Maddon from Tampa Bay and Kirk Gibson of Arizona, neither off whom went to the World Series which simply makes the award sort of stupid to me.

Ok, so my favorite team is the Mets and my least favorite team is the Phillies.
This might provide a clue about the 2012 season and these two teams.
Transactions:
Philadelphia Phillies signed free agent 1B Jim Thome.

Philadelphia Phillies signed free agent RHP Jonathan Papelbon.

New York Mets signed free agent OF Vinny Rottino.

New York Mets signed free agent 1B Valentino Pascucci.

However, the Mets are moving in the fences at Citi Field slicing the playing surface there by 2%. Based on information provided by the team, had the fences been at the new dimensions since the stadium opened the Mets would have hit 81 more homeruns there and opponents 70. So this is a good thing for my team. I just don’t know if Rottino and Pascucci are just as good of a move.

Speaking of Free Agents, there are many but just a few of real consequence. Thome and Papelbon were decent signings for the Phils. With Ryan Howard out for months because of his Achilles tendon surgery, Thome can fill in there at firstbase. Papelbon, a closer for the Red Sox will take over that spot in Philly…for way too much money, but let them spend everything they have, I don’t care.
Other key free agents of note…
OF Carlos Beltran. He went from the Mets to the Giants in a mid-season trade and had a decent year coming off knee surgery. He should get a good chase.

SS Jose Reyes. This one kills me. If the Mets don’t sign him I’m going to find it tough to continue rooting for them. The fact that they signed Rattino and Pascucci makes me think the team, which has had financial difficulties, is saving to pay him.

1B Albert Pujols. St. Louis fans are probably saying the same thing that I am saying about Reyes. There is no way that city can let Albert go.

1B Prince Fielder. I think Fielder is a lock to leave Milwaukee. I will actually be shocked if he stays there, but the Brewers were fun to watch this year making the playoffs and they put butts in seats so maybe enough cash is there.

RP Heath Bell. I think paying closers anything more than a million dollars a year is a waste of money since they pitch one inning at a time. But of the closers still available he has been one of the best.
OF Grady Sizemore. Yes, he has been injured but he is still just 29 years old. A 3 year deal might be workable and a team could get a decent return for him for a contract much smaller than he would have had if he had not been injured.
SP Mark Buehrle. Buehrle is just 32 and a lefty. Every team needs a left-handed starter and one who has thrown a couple of no-hitters is icing on the cake. If the Mets don’t sign Reyes I think they need to sign this guy or…
SP Roy Oswalt. He was part of that monstrous Phillie starting rotation and he had a decent year. He is 34 so anything more than a 2-year deal is foolish. This makes me think he stays in Philly, but we never know, do we?


So that’s baseball talk. I would talk more about hypnosis but my show schedule has been light. I’ve been getting requests to go all over the country but the fees people have been expecting to pay haven’t covered air fare, which is something that completely baffles me.

So with the show schedule light, hypnotherapy is spotty, hypnosis training is spotty and pretty much everything else I have tried to do not producing much, I have to find some additional ways to do better than just survive.
I am open to suggestions here.
I find myself at a crossroad in my life…again. And just when I find myself there and was dealing with the loss of my dog for a while, someone in my life kicked me and pooped on me when I was down. This is something I shall not forget…ever.
But I shall try to use it to my advantage in some way. Hopefully I will figure out exactly what that might be.

At least Beavis and Butthead are back on TV. They make more sense to me than what is going on in my world these days.

Done.

Speaking His Mind

Longtime CBS news correspondent and editorialist Andy Rooney just died at the age of 92.

This dude was at CBS for 60 years and most notably was the guy who closed out editions of the TV show “60 Minutes.” His essays at the end of each show were what he was known for writing and broadcasting.

I was never a Rooney fan but I respect someone who is courageous enough to say what he believes he needs to say in front of millions of people regardless of the consequences. Rooney, during his tenure in this spot, angered Blacks, Indians (oh crap, I just said Blacks and Indians…forgive me…African-Americans and Native-Americans,) Gays, Christians, and even fans of OJ Simpson and Nirvana.

He even called out CBS executives, on the air, to fire him over the responses he would get to some of his work.

So in his honor, I’ll proceed. Read on with caution.

Andy Rooney 1919-2011

I’m staring at my hypnosis show schedule for December and I am still stuck on ONE.
The Holiday season is one for Holiday parties, mostly Christmas parties of course, but some places have become freaked out enough that the parties are simply named Holiday parties so as not to offend any other group that doesn’t celebrate Christmas. You know, that 15% of people living here legally and not in a sleeper cell.

So why only one show? Well, it could be because my show sucks, but with plenty of other places bringing me back to do shows during my other normally busier times of year, that might not be it.

I have spoken with one particular person who had me scheduled for a show but now the company doesn’t have enough money for entertainment.

But why is that? I thought this country was on the road to “recovery!”

Hogeffingwash, that is.

I watch and follow the news and see people in the streets protesting in front of big businesses telling these businesses that they “aren’t paying their fair share,” and other sorts of commie nonsense.

These “unfair” companies are the ones who hire someone like me at Christmas parties where they spend thousands of dollars to celebrate the season with their employees. Not a single one of these companies is obliged to do this, but lots do. Many more are beginning not to do so. They are cutting back because times are tough and because they are told that these types of expenditures are frivolous and wasteful. They are told that they don’t have the right to celebrate like this because other people are out of work and that such a celebration spits in the eye of those who don’t have jobs.

So what happens? I teeter on the brink of bankruptcy by the end of the year if this doesn’t change, or if I don’t find an alternate plan for myself.

So, it’s cool and all that people want to go out and protest and speak their minds. We all have that right. But these particular demonstrators are calling themselves “occupiers.”
Now, I would imagine that since most of these demonstrators are leftists, and we know this is the case since both the Communist and National Socialist (NAZI) parties are in solidarity with them, that they were, and are, against the so-called “occupation” of countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course I speak of our own military operations over there where our own soldiers are called “war criminals” and other such names by the people protesting in America.

So if our military is “occupying” a country waging a war, aren’t demonstrators who are “occupying” a city such as…let’s say…Oakland, where there is now violence in the streets, waging and committing acts of war?

I would say that those revolutionaries are doing just that…waging Civil War in our country…and we should take tanks and machine guns and go to war with them.

Oh, but wait! President Obama used to be a lawyer with the community organizing group ACORN which, I suppose just coincidentally, is at least one of the groups that has organized these demonstrations. So I guess it’s ok then for these revolutionaries to revolt like this, right? Because Obama is the President of the US!

But isn’t the Presidents #1 priority to safeguard the people of the United States? I see that in the Constitution, at least. Are big businesses doing business in the US not eligible for protection from violent mobs?

I’m confused. I have heard Mr. Obama rage against banks and other big businesses that aren’t spending enough money supporting his campaign (like General Electric, Solyndra, etc.) so is then this his Army of people rioting now in the streets? Are we supposed to be at war with banks and businesses in this country?

Help me out here, please! Banks loaned me money to get my house. Businesses hire me and pay me to do work so I can eat and buy clothes and all of that happy stuff. They both give money to charitable causes and generate tax revenue for local governments. WHY ARE WE AT WAR WITH THEM?

The banking regulations slapped on banks in the last couple of years by the Obama administration and the leftist controlled congress from 2009-2010 have made it extremely difficult for some people…oh, I don’t know…maybe LIKE ME…to get a business loan. So coupled with a poor economy (oh wait, I’m sorry…VP Joe Biden and head of the DNC Deborah Wasserman-Schultz say that everything is just fine) increased regulations, and the increased demonization of any big business that isn’t trying to build solar panels and wind mills that aren’t keeping my energy bill lower, I, and many others like me, face…let’s say…an uncertain future.

So if war is being waged against banks and businesses then people, praised by none other than our own President and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, are effectively waging war on ME, because I am directly affected by these regulations, restrictions and demonstrations.

So against whom do I fight back? No one, that’s right, because I simply don’t have the money or power to do it. And that’s by design, make no mistake about it.  

I can speak about it and write about it, for now. How long will that last though? Hopefully we can all make it until 1-20-13 where we change things back to a time where we weren’t on a road to Greece and we can call Christmas, Christmas, call Halloween, Halloween, call Easter, Easter, have hypnosis shows at celebrations of all of those types of events and parties, and we can all have fun and make money and grow and prosper together…all of us, not just one or two select groups, but all of us. As long as we have a President who stands in front of our people and actively chastises and pits one group against another…for example, the rich against the poor…this will not happen.

Three guys who I had hoped would join the race for President are not going to do so. I currently like Herman Cain, who is running. I mentioned him some time ago in this dumb-assed blog. I’ll be happy with any of the above right now, even Ron Paul. I just want to work at helping make people laugh at parties. This President has done nothing to help facilitate that…AT ALL.

I take a big risk writing down this stuff here. I don’t have the resources to fight off being placed on some black list by people who might hire me but don’t agree with what I just said and decide not to do so. I might even have an agent or two who disagrees with me. I know I have at least one who says her corporate business is down 80% though, so I’m betting she is with me.

She probably wouldn’t say it like I just did, but I am writing to speak my mind just like Andy Rooney did for all of those years. He got paid a lot of money to do it though, so he took a lot less risk than I did. But I’d be a coward if I didn’t stand up for and speak of the things in which I believe, regardless of the consequences.

And to think when I started this that I didn’t really have anything to say. RIP Andy Rooney, and thank you for doing what you did.

Done.