The Winkest Link

By Wink

Some will see this as the beginning of the end of the world.

An openly gay politician was elected to office. In Texas.

There have always been gay politicians. Many-many gay politicians. But the closet was always full. No one dared come out.

As representation, American gays had only Barney Frank and a handful of others (mostly in San Francisco we presume).

To ‘religious conservatives’ gay politicians winning elections in Texas must be a bad-bad omen.

I sometimes think the overly religious are hoping for the apocalypse. Deep inside they secretly wish something horrific will happen so they can say… “See? I told you so.”

They seem to revel in signs that we are nearing ‘the end.’

Bothered by hurricanes and earthquakes? Blame the gays. What other explanation could there be?

I must admit though, there are scary signs out there. Pollution. Overpopulation. Vladimir Putin. Starvation. Terrorists. Crazy dictators with access to nuclear weapons.

Kim Jong-il? That dude scares me.

The apocalypse will not occur because two people love each other. It is much more likely to occur because two people(s) hate each other.

And it won’t surprise ANYONE if religious fervor is the finger that pulls the trigger.

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By Wink

Joe Biden is an excitable guy. He gets mad. He gets happy. He expresses himself.

During the signing ceremony for the recently passed Health Care Bill, he whispered into the president’s ear “this is a big f-ing deal.” Only he didn’t say “f-ing.” He said the word.

Granted, it wasn’t meant for public consumption, but microphones are very powerful these days, and his foul language became part of the story.

For a bright guy, sometimes Biden is a bit of a slow learner. Our president and vice president are as close as we have to royalty. For public consumption, they should try to act with some propriety.

His glibness is part of his charm, however, so it would be sad to see his emotion, be it elation or frustration, muted or muzzled.

Regardless, now he is the Veep, and he will have to watch his mouth at all times.

Story over?

Nope.

A Kentucky teenager wrote to Biden expressing his displeasure at the coarse verbiage.

This is precisely what the teen should have done. Part of what makes this country great is you can criticize our leaders, even directly.

You know how many letters (and e-mails) the president and Veep get daily? Thousands and thousands and thousands.

So it defied very long odds when this boy received a two-paragraph response from Biden.

The Veep could have simply ignored the letter, especially since it was critical of him, but he chose to respond. And the response included an apology.

“I should have expressed my excitement in a more appropriate manner.”

NOW is the story over?

Nope.

Far from being gracious and thankful to receive a personal apology from the Vice President of the United States, the teenager had this to say:

“It was not really an apology, but that’s as close to an apology as I will be receiving.”

What the “F” does this kid want???

(We at Winkest Link would like to apologize to anyone who may have been offended with how we ended this article. To those who refuse to accept our apology we say…. Tough S***)

By Wink

Sports magazines, newspapers and television networks are all agog.

LeBron James has apparently let a lot of people down.

His team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, was just eliminated from the playoffs by the Boston Celtics.

He didn’t win any championships with Cleveland.

This wouldn’t be much of an issue, but all the aforementioned mags, newspapers and television networks have already anointed LeBron as the next savior of the NBA, the next ‘Michael Jordan.’

Not much pressure there, right LeBron?

He is eligible for free agency, and can now choose to re-sign with Cleveland or sign with any other team. The most talked-about ‘other teams’ are the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls.

Who knows where he will sign. If he re-ups with Cleveland, Cavs fans will rejoice, and many people will praise his loyalty.

If he signs with another team, any other team, he will be seen as greedy, or as calloused toward the long-suffering Cleveland fans.

Is James, at 25, officially overrated? We sort of doubt that. It took Jordan longer than this to start his championship run.

Either way, I don’t care. He has been nothing but a class act, who has reflected positively on Cleveland, and the NBA.

LeBron, if you are reading this, just grant me one wish…..

Don’t sign with the @*!#*!# Lakers

By Wink

As you may know, last week the Winkest Link predicted that Diane Wood would be the next Supreme Court nominee.

We were smug enough to think that, since we got it right on Sonia Sotomayor, we were probably clairvoyant.

Oops, we were wrong.

President Obama has nominated Elena Kagan. If you are somewhat politically astute, you will know who she is. Therefore, we won’t bore you with Kagan trivia (for now).

We will spend the rest of our time placing blame for our faulty pick.

Among our convenient excuses….

• The sun was in our eyes.
• The dog ate our paper.
• We should have been suspicious of our inside source, Dick Cheney. (He doesn’t have that good of a record for accurate predictions.)

And we do apologize to you for suggesting you bet your (currently defaulting) mortgage on Diane Wood.

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By Wink

According to Winkest Link inside sources, the next Supreme Court nominee will be Diane Wood.

Doubt us if you wish, but we got it right on Sonia Sotomayor. (See our articles of May 12, 2009 and May 28 2009)

We are going to roll the dice again on Diane Wood. A bit about her first….

Wood was educated at the University of Texas School of Law, where she was an editor of the Texas Law Review. She graduated in 1975 at the top of her class with high honors.

She was among the first women to clerk at the Supreme Court and, after working in private practice, became the third woman ever hired as a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School.

Wood was nominated to the Seventh Circuit by President Clinton, and was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate.

Do NOT expect a unanimous confirmation this time though.

Almost every Obama effort has been opposed by Republicans, no matter how logical or innocuous the issue.

Nothing innocuous about this though, this is the Supreme Court. The battle will be furious.

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Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Wood

If you haven’t heard, Arizona legislature passed a law allowing police to stop or detain suspected illegal immigrants and demand proof of their citizenship.

They do not need warrants. They do not need probable cause.

This is arguably the most dangerous law ever enacted.

This blatant invasion of privacy can be a window of opportunity for all states to pass the same thing. And not only the same thing, but other laws that directly affect you.

This is the biggest of big brothers. If it is not declared unconstitutional, all freedoms we take for granted could be at risk.

By Wink

God bless you John McCain.

War hero. Alleged iconoclast.

You now tell us you never considered yourself a maverick. Really? Never?

Did you read your autobiography, or at least the COVER of your autobiography?

You are an extremely smart man. You know the word “autobiography” indicates you wrote the book, about yourself. You did write it, didn’t you?

Toward the end of the health care debate you declared you would not work with the president for the rest of the year. (This was in February)

Really, the rest of the year? No matter the topic? Even in areas where you agree with the president?

This precludes thought and makes you, Senator McCain, irrelevant, and even unnecessary. We can just put a monkey in that chair to push the ‘no’ button.

Arizona has had a tradition of choosing great senators, both Democrats and Republicans. Carl Hayden, Barry Goldwater, Dennis DeConcini, and yes you, John McCain.

(It is of note that both DeConcini and McCain were implicated in the “Keating 5” scandal)

Senator McCain, you have now renounced all your previous views on immigration, on “don’t ask don’t tell,” on working across party lines for the betterment of society, even on being a ‘maverick.’

My guess is you could stave off any Arizona Republican challenger without pandering, but apparently you are taking no chances.

Once you get by your lightweight opponent in the Republican primary, you will stomp an even lighter-weight Democratic opponent.

There used to be some good Dems in Arizona. Whatever happened with that?

Where have the Udall’s gone?

Oh, to Colorado and New Mexico….

By Wink

The makers of the Comedy Central series “South Park” have apparently offended somebody.

This may be a first for this otherwise placid cartoon.

Of course, if you are familiar with the show, you may have noticed a tinge of sarcasm in the above remarks….

South Park is outrageous. Always has been. It is sometimes offensive and hilarious, and sometimes is just offensive.

Do NOT watch it if you take yourself, or your politics, or your religion too seriously. They also rip on celebrities. Boy, do they rip on celebrities.

Racism, sexism, gay-bashing? The show has it all.

A radical Islamic website called Revolutionmuslim.com has decided that the creators of South Park have gone too far.

And what is “too far” you ask?

A recent episode included an image of the Prophet Mohammed disguised in a teddy bear costume. This may be the mildest insult in the history of the show.

In truth, this is probably the most respectful and gentle treatment of any religion that the show has ever dealt with.

Doesn’t matter. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are now under the threat of violent retribution. This is no small consideration.

The post on Revolutionmuslim.com said: “We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”

The post included a horrific photo of Van Gogh with his throat cut and a dagger in his chest. It also included Comedy Central’s address, and the address of Parker and Stone’s production company, and encouraged readers to “contact them [Parker & Stone], or pay Comedy Central or their own company a visit…”

Not a threat? Theo van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered by an Islamic extremist in 2004. His offense? He made a short documentary on violence against women in some Islamic societies.

Of course there are millions of peaceful and courteous followers but, to outsiders Islam appears to be rudderless.

And there are (seemingly) countless nut jobs who claim to be leaders. Some of these ‘leaders’ seem to want to kill anybody who offends them.

Can’t we all just look down on ‘blasphemers,’ or do we have to murder them? There are lots of blasphemers out there.

Maybe Islam needs a ‘pope.’ Not the same pope, but their own leader who can make big decisions. And they don’t have to call him ‘pope’ either

Catholicism has had its share of historical disgraceful acts, too numerous to mention here. Occasionally, however, the Pope gets to stand up and say “You know, we were REALLY wrong on that one” and offer up some sort of an apology. Honestly! He does this from time to time.

More importantly, the Pope can discipline church ‘leaders’ who step out of line. I am inclined to think a bishop or archbishop would be ‘out of line’ to ask followers to murder someone who insults Jesus.

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So Tiger Woods said he would be a much more collected person since he returned from his time off. Yet we saw pretty much the same Tiger that we did before. On multiple occasions he used profanity.

Who gives a crap?

Jim Nantz, apparently some sort of golf announcer, said he would be fired if he used that language on air.

Well, Jim, you’re paid to have a microphone in your face. Tiger is not. It’s not his fault that what he says is picked up from nearby microphones. Nor is it any other athletes fault, or job to keep themselves PC. Usually when an athletes (or fan) swears, and it’s picked up, the announcers just laugh it off or ignore it.

What I’m saying, Jim, is do your job and let the athletes do theirs.

By Wink

I normally don’t do book reviews.

Any I do would probably be dated, because I rarely feel the need to purchase any book the first moment it appears at the bookstore (Harry Potter being the notable exception, of course)

I read a lot, but have specialized interests. Most of what interests me, history for example, doesn’t require that books be ‘new.’

But, strolling through the bookstore, I stumbled upon the new Carol Burnett book, “This Time Together.”

Hey, who DOESN’T like Carol Burnett? So I started thumbing through it.

Normally I toss back ‘celebrity’ books fairly quickly. They are usually self-serving, or scandalizing, or both, but this was none of that.

It was just fun.

There cannot be an easier read. The chapters are pretty much all three or four page stories of the various people she knew in her adult life. (She previously chronicled her difficult youth in a book released in 1986.)

David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle was not as smitten as I with the book, but gives it a moderately kind review anyway. Perhaps he was hoping for a dirty laundry tell-all type of book.

Maybe she can do that next time, but it seems unlikely. It just seems like she was placed on earth to entertain and charm us. Like she does in this book.

Buy it. You won’t regret it. Better yet, give a copy to a good friend. It is sure to brighten their day…