TC the Terrible

Valuable space in my brain is being wasted by thoughts like these:

• How screwed up is it that whenever I hear Strauss’ “Thus Spake Zarathustra” that I don’t think of a great concert symphony, or the opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey; but instead I think of Ric Flair’s ring entrance?
• I don’t care if he did steal Jude Law’s girl friend last summer, the new James Bond is a real pansy. How the hell can we respect a James Bond that is pro-gun control? The casting people have got to be smoking some really, really good dope.
• And a sure sign of the impending Apocalypse. Ashlee Simpson, the terminally untalented and annoying sister of pop star Jessica Simpson, has the No. 1 album this week. That puts her ahead of soul legend Stevie Wonder. She’s also ahead of Nickelback and the Black Eyed Peas. That just shows that in today’s MTV, image is king, ten second sound bite world; talent is no longer a factor.

As I expected, the Washington Post led off today’s news with the magic number 2000. What I did not expect was for them to be as fair about it as they were:

The deaths in Iraq are relatively few compared with other wars in U.S. history, and they pale dramatically in comparison with the losses in the two world wars, when the United States saw a combined total of more than half a million fall. The Iraq death total also falls far short of the worst nine years of the Vietnam War, from 1964 to 1973, when more than 58,000 U.S. troops did not return, an average of more than 6,400 deaths a year.

Those numbers are pretty clear. Folks, it could be a whole lot worse for our troops’ families than it is right now. Our guys over there are doing a great job, one that really matters in the long term picture, and are doing it the right way. We need to back off and give them the time and resources to get the job done right.

Well, truth be told a whole hell of a lot of people died today. Not all of them become a part of the nightly news cast though.

The two that will get the most coverage were Marines serving the Nation in Iraq. It’s their deaths that pushed the casualty count to over 2,000 since the beginning of the war. Never mind that this war has had the fewest deaths of any prolonged conflict in our history. The press and other nay-sayers will use the demise of these two heros to show that we made a mistake by liberating an opressed people. They will again sound off on the fact that we need to come home now, and leave those same people to suffer at the hand of whichever militant leader would climb to the top of the heap. The people we freed from one dictator would fall prey to another, and an entire quadrant of the world would hate us more than we could ever imagine. To leave now would show the world that the US has no resolve and no integrity.

Another death in today’s headlines reminds us of something we could all use. Class.

Wellington T. “Duke” Mara, the New York Giants‘ owner who died Tuesday at his home in Rye, N.Y., at the age of 89, represented everything that today’s sport is not.

I grew up a fan of the NFC East and at a young age understood that Wellington Mara was different from the other NFL owners. After 80 years of working for, running, and owning the New York Football Giants, Mr. Mara died of cancer today. Greg Garber over at ESPN.com has the best of the early obits on him and makes you wish you had known the Giants owner. In a world of self-obssesed stars (hello T.O.) this was a guy that was content to build quality teams and to work behind the bright lights.

And lastly there is another obit that you may have missed in the blur of our 24 hour news orgy.

Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks Dies at 92

DETROIT — Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, died Monday evening. She was 92.

Granted she was paid (by the NAACP) to sit there until she got arrested, nor was she the first black woman arrested for not giving up her seat. That still does not change the fact that her actions were the catalyst to kick the Civil Rights Movement into high gear. The movement went from equal rights to extra rights somewhere along the way and has become a real mess now. But good or bad, she’s the one that you’ll read about in the history books for the rest of time.