TomFlannery.com

Football season is finally here. I know this because Notre Dame has already managed to lose 2 games it should have won. It could be worse but the Irish have only played 2 games. So there’s a bit of silver lining.

On these glorious just-about-fall Saturdays and Sundays, it is quite possible to sink down in your couch at Noon, and if you have a superhuman bladder, not move anything but your thumb on the remote for more than 12 hours. As a matter of fact, I would recommend seeing how long you can last, if only to have something to talk about when you go back to work on Monday (Avoid liquids or you’ll never make it past the first quarter. Like most things, it’s all a matter of discipline).

The kids are back in school full-time. The house grows quieter earlier. The days are growing shorter little by little. There seems more urgency as we tackle the mundane tasks of the day. Summer malaise has worn off, and we feel like we should be working harder, or moving faster, or doing that little extra that we promised we’d do in July and August but never got around to doing. If we’re lulled into complacency Madison Avenue is always there to remind us that Halloween and Thanksgiving are right around the proverbial corner. And of course, it won’t be long before we all start getting those dreadful catalogs in the mail with those impossibly good-looking real-life mannequins on the cover wearing red sweaters and scarves (no, “scarfs” is not the plural of “scarf”…I checked) standing in front of Xmas trees smiling manically at each other pretending that they look completely normal and that all of us look that way too.

People are already talking about 2012, especially Republicans, who are currently busy gouging each others eyeballs out for the right to get stomped in the next Presidential election…not because Obama is doing a great job because he isn’t, but because the Republicans have once again managed to corral a group of batshit-crazed ideologues who all look like they’ve overdosed on Botox.  As I watch Rick Perry all by himself bringing the national IQ down every time he opens his mouth, I’m reminded of what the late great Texan Molly Ivins said. “Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States … please pay attention.” That goes for anybody who thinks the earth is 5000 years old too, by the way. Folks are certainly entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts.

Don’t get mad at me. I don’t make these people up. Look on the bright side. At least Christine O’Donnell isn’t running…although it might be interesting to have somebody in the White House who felt the need to spend money on a national ad in which she proclaimed, with a straight face, “I am not a witch”.

And Obama is not a foreign Muslim bent on destroying us all via creeping socialism….although you’d be forgiven for thinking so if Fox News is your cup of tea (excuse the horrible pun).

Obama is also not a great President, which I hoped he would be. He’s not even a particularly good one (his bank bailout and his retreat on Universal Health care lost me…..and unemployment has gotten so bad that Fox News has actually started to report on “new poor people”, which is ironic to say the least), but I dare say if it comes down between him and a guy who calls Social Security a “ponzi scheme”, I don’t think I’m gonna have any trouble deciding who to vote for.

Good grief. I seem to have gotten all liberal and commie-like all of a sudden. Over the last few years I’ve largely given up on politics, so I hope you’ll forgive my rare detour. Somebody had to tell me who my congressman was the other day….and at the moment I’ve forgotten his name again. I could google it but it hardly seems worth it. Mark Twain once said, “There is no native criminal class except Congress”…..and Twain was way smarter than I am. I don’t want to spend a splendid fall day googling somebody I didn’t vote for anyway. But still, it seems vaguely important to have sane people in charge of our government, which should disqualify Texans and deranged Alaskans at least. But….well…..never mind. It’s not 2012 yet. Maybe we’ll be obliterated by a meteor before then…or that guy who keeps changing his prediction dates on the rapture will get lucky. Even a stopped clock is correct twice a day you know.

Yea….and maybe Notre Dame will finish 9-2.

In a bit…

–tf