Years of Decay

Heads up skywatchers.  Tempel-Tuttle returns to our corner of the solar system this weekend and it should be clear skies for us up here in the northeast for viewing.  Make sure you know which direction to watch and dress warm.  Enjoy!

More shocking (if by shocking you mean par for the union course) news on the union front.  Hostess refuses to give into ridiculous, fantasy land demands and shuts down.

The workers said they realize the strike could close Hostess for good.
"We're hoping that the company just shuts down. Get someone else in here. We don't know if any other companies are looking and we don't know if they'll sell," Leighton said.

'Cause nothing says easily re-employed like 15% 22% real unemployment, right fellas?  If a union rather see a company close and put every employee out of work, consider for a moment what PSU's are doing with our tax dollars.  PSU's and the politicians they own think there is a never-ending supply of our money to pay for their every demand.  Good luck with that.  Eventually running out of other people's money to spend isn't just a river in Egypt.

As I've been saying since the election, make it hurt.  If half the country wants to put Democrats/Socialists in charge, let them know what they're voting for.  This strategy will of course hurt conservatives too, but we all need to feel the pain to learn the lesson.  Apparently seeing a socialist system slowly cannibalize itself across the pond isn't enough, my countrymen need to learn the hard way.  Bring it.  You grasshoppers on the left are in for a long, cold economic winter.  I'm not the only one who thinks this way.

Sort of reminds me of disciplining my 8 year old.  Didn't do your homework?  No Twinkies for you!  (closer to "no 3DS for you", but that didn't make for a snappy title.)

Here were are, ten days after the Teleprompter-in-chief wins the election. As the dust begins to settle, let's recap just a small portion of the great news that comes with this big win by Barry O.

On the economic front:

• Hostess Brands is going down the tubes. The maker of our beloved Twinkies is calling it quits and laying off 18,000+ workers.
• Sears has reports a $500 million net loss.
• Denny's is contemplating cutting hours and benefits as well as adding a 5% ObamaCare surcharge.
• One day after the election Boeing announces major layoffs.
• Because of the glorious medical device tax, leading innovators such as Boston Scientific and Medtronic are contemplating layoffs.

On the "things we forgot to tell you" front:

• Iran shot down one of our drones
• The General Patraeus scandal now comes to light
• Food stamp numbers increased dramatically the month before the election

On the foreign affairs front:

• Hamas is getting hyper-aggressive, launching attacks into Israel.
• See above, re: General Patraeus

 Yes kiddies, we're in for a wonderful four years. Strap yourself in it's gonna be one hell of a ride!

The more I think about it the more I believe that the collapse of our once great republic is — as our teleprompter in chief is so fond of saying — Bush's fault.  

Now that's a pretty strong statement coming from conservative, but allow me to give you two reasons why I think this is so:

• Compassionate Conservatism = Liberalism Lite: Compared to Bill Clinton in his second term ("the era of big government is over"), President Bush was a spendaholic. Bailouts and giveaways exploded under him. People got comfortable with idea of handouts and giveaways. Democrats quietly said to themselves: "Hell if Bush can spend so much, we can easily double down on his spending."
• The Punching Bag President: W is a good man. I believe him to be both honest and honorable. Furthermore, he treated the presidency and the oval office with respect and dignity. The left doesn't care about such outdated notions. They care about power and will stop short of nothing to attain what they want. And because of Bush's respect for his position, he refused to stoop to the level of the left in order to defend himself from the most ridiculous attacks from both democrats and their allies in the media. This created a 12-year (and perhaps longer) opportunity to blame every ill, every shortcoming and every flaw on Bush and conservatives. This I believe was the primary reason President Teleprompter was elected. He blamed Bush for everything; even as he was running for a second term, it was still all Bush's fault the economy was in the tank.

I'm sure there are plenty more reasons, but if I think about it and go even deeper, I'll end up writing a book. Worse, you may get bored and stop reading this blog. And if that happens, don't blame me — Blame Bush.

Congratulations to R.A. Dickey, who took 27 of 32 first place votes in winning the 2012 National League Cy Young award.  As a long suffering Mets fan, I couldn't be prouder to have one of our own be recognized as one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball.  As a human being, it couldn't have happened to a more deserving person; and believe me, this didn't just "happen" to him.

The 38-year-old Dickey won 20 games for a Mets team that won only 74, throwing a league-leading 233 innings with a 2.73 ERA and a 140 ERA+. He edged out Kershaw for the strikeout title in the NL, with 230 to Kershaw's 229. He becomes the third Mets pitcher to win the award, joining Tom Seaver (1969, 1973, 1975) and Dwight Gooden (1985).

Dickey has fought through adversity since before his career ever got started, worked tirelessly, met every stumbling block head on and triumphed against the slimmest of odds.  That he is now standing atop the baseball world as one of the best is a testament to his unwavering strength, focus and dare I say, individualism.  If you want to pass off my ravings as a biased Mets fan, check out his autobiography; it will tell you all you need to know about R.A. Dickey and the human spirit.  Again, my wholehearted congratulations.

Update:  Did I mention incredibly humble and classy?  R.A. Dickey MLB interview from this evening.

Welcome to Years of Decay blog!  Originally named Rakin' n Slashin', this blog is being relaunched in November of 2012 after a long hiatus, now to be known as Years of Decay.  The original blog was New York sports oriented, but school, family and life in general didn't allow me to continue posting on a regular basis.  The relaunch will also change the direction of the blog, focusing more on our fractured political landscape, in which direction our country is headed and the outright propagandizing of what used to be our Fourth Estate.  There will be two of us posting now, hopefully both on a daily basis.   We will also continue to update the site design over the coming weeks and of course be open to any constructive criticism related to our blog's appearance.  Thank you for have stopping by and we hope you'll be back.

Whoa!  Ex-Met and now it seems ex-Marlin Jose Reyes traded to Toronto Blue Jays along with Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle.  Headed back to Miami in return are Yunel Escobar, Henderson Alvarez, and Adeiny Hechavarria.  Talk about a Miami Firesale!  This Mets fan certainly won't miss seeing Jose in Flushing anytime soon.

Here I am thinking I overreacted to this election. Silly me.
Update: It's not just Louisiana. I'm surprised this state didn't try it first.
Update 2:  It's up to 20 states now, with Texas having already hit the required 25k signatures to force a White House response.

Just when we thought Algore's money-grabbing Climate Crew had taken a back seat to reality, we get this.  Once again, "probably", "could be", "might", "believe", "may have", "potential" and "theorize" contain enough fact to definitively inform us "deniers" that we need to kill our economy by another few percentage points as we bow to the Climate Cooling Warming Change religion.  Four more years baby.

Subtract one superstar in Sidney Crosby, add one (ok, maybe two) periods of excellent team defense, three periods of a stellar Henrik Lundquist, Sean Avery and Brandon Dubinsky and the total is: A convincing 5-2 Rangers win, 2 points in the standings and a bit of a reprieve from their recent futile Florida trip.

After a 1st period of more free handouts than your local soup kitchen, Coach Tom Renney called a time-out 3 minutes and two quick Penguin goals into the 2nd period, settled down the troops and the Rangers responded almost immediately. Less than a minute later, after strong forecheck pressure and hard hitting from Colton Orr and Blair Betts, 4th line forward Fredrik Sjostrom intercepted a pass in the slot, faked Pens goalie Ty Conklin right, then popped a shot past Conklin's stick to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead they would never relinquish.

Sean Avery potted 2 goals and was all over Conklin most of the evening. A "re-sign Avery" chant went up in the Garden after Avery's 2nd goal; if Sather lets this guy get away, it will be the worst move he has made as Rangers GM. One question: Why was Avery wearing a black knit hat during the post-game interview? Did he get a bad sunburn in Florida or a butcher shop haircut?

Martin Straka added a goal in the 3rd and played a strong north-south game, which as most of you Rangers fans know, is not something we've seen alot of this season. I actually saw Straka dump the puck in behind Conklin on at least two occasions when he couldn't stickhandle past the Penguins defense or attempt an ill-advised cross-ice pass. Yes, miracles can happen.

Brandon Dubinsky is turning into a monster on Broadway. He hits everything that moves and hits hard. He's shown a good scoring touch, a nose for the puck, surprising speed and has a goal-scorers' hands. In years past, we would have watched regretfully watched Dubinsky perform like this for another team, as he most likely would have been shipped off for a high-priced vet at the trading deadline. Thank god for the salary cap.

New York travels to New Jersey to meet up with the 1st place Devils Wednesday night against whom the Rangers are an astonishing 5-0 so far this season. The Rangers seem to have the Devils number in '07-'08 as Renney's defensive system, when played correctly, matches up well against a NJ team that plays a defense-first game. Here's to the Rangers balanced scoring attack outdueling Jersey's one dimensional offense.

Posting has been very light while I'm down here in PSL. The internet connection I'm on is excruciatingly slow and with the kids around all day, its hard to get any free time. Nighttime comes and I'm usually too wiped to be sitting in front of my laptop. It's hot, I'm distracted and uncomfortable at the desk I'm using. /excuses off

Of course, if a better synopsis of the game is warranted (trust me, it is), then stop by Hockey Rodent; you can't get any better than that. HR now has the Rangers at a 95.3% chance of making the playoffs via his Berth-o-Meter, in case anyone is interested.

Forgot to mention this milestone last night: Henrik Lundquist reached 100 wins in his short NHL career. In the process, Lundquist broke the Rangers record of fastest to 100 wins, which was held by Mike Richter who reached 100 wins in 198 games. Henrik accomplished the same feat in only 187 games. This is just one of many Ranger records soon to be broken and owned by The King.