Hi Folks:
Hope everybody enjoyed this beautiful spring Sunday. Let's get to it.
NEWS ITEM: The Syrian Conflict
I wrestled with the question of whether or not I should broach the subject of President Trump's decision to launch cruise missiles at Syria on Thursday. As you are all well aware, I've been avoiding politics here. Like Jimmy Fallon, I'm just trying as best I can to keep things light, in a world where it seems you can't avoid the dark and heavy.
Another reason I've avoided the political firestorm is that while I used to love getting knocked around for what I wrote, enjoyed firing up the debate, over time I realized a few things, 1) Things I thought I was right about, I may not have been, 2) you can debate till your blue in the face, at this point you're not likely to change anyone's mind.
What happened on Thursday is a prime example of this. The first people to come on-line and blast away at Trump for ordering the attack, were the same people who would have blasted him if he came on TV and said "It's the policy of my administration that the United States not get involved in the Syrian conflict." I couldn't help but shake my head.
Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that what the President did was the right move, in fact, I'm not sure that it was at all. Like President Trump, I was appalled that chemical weapons were used and that innocent children were killed in that horrific way. Like his opponents, I wondered how many of those kids we could have saved with a refugee policy that would have allowed them safe passage to America. As someone who has seen way too many terrorist acts in the past 20 years, I also wondered if we let our immigration laws lax, if we could be potentially letting in foreign terrorists. As a human being, I wondered why a nation as advanced as we say we are couldn't just root out the bad guys and save the good.
Keeping our nose out of Syria, as Trump seemed to say he would do while campaigning, would keep our troops out of a war that no doubt would cost us in blood and treasure with no guarantee of victory. What would be a victory? Over throwing Bashar al-Assad and installing an America friendly government? One thing I know for sure, all the cruise missiles in the world wouldn't guarantee that outcome. Eventually you'd have to have boots on the ground, Doing that in Syria, I'm pretty sure would make what happened in Iraq look like a Sunday picnic.
Yeah, there was a part of me that liked the idea of holding Syria accountable for those atrocities they committed. I still believe in the goodness of our nation, that when evil acts like the one that took place in Syria happen, that we have the power to make those responsible pay.
Did we accomplish that on Thursday? I guess time will tell.
OK, now back to the fun stuff.....
OUT AND PROUD: Barry Manilow!!!
Several news outlets the other day took a few minutes out of their Donald Trump coverage to report that the great Barry Manilow was singing to the world that he's gay and has been in a relationship with his manager Gary Keif for several years. He said that he kept his sexuality a secret all this time because he didn't want to disappoint his fans.
I don't mean to make light of this, but if even an idiot like me could figure out that Manilow was gay, I'm sure most of the intelligent world had it figured out as well.
And while I understand that for non famous people, the idea of revealing your sexuality could be difficult depending on your upbringing, the one area of society where nobody truly gives a $h-t who you are sleeping with is show business. I mean, did Barry Manilow really think he was going to lose one single fan because he came out? Sorry folks, I'm not buying it.
Shoot, I can relate to the time I first came out.....as a Barry Manilow fan! It was dangerous times for me to do so. It was right around this time of year, my senior year of high school. Patti-Ann and Joann were trying to set up friends of theirs with each other. The girl was friends with PA and the guy, was friends with Joann (and with me as well). I don't know how it came up, but Patti-Ann's friend asked if anyone besides her liked Barry Manilow. I said that one of my favorite songs when I was little was Copacabana. Everyone in the car (and there were like 8 of us squeezed into a 5 passenger car) laughed at me. I didn't care. And this was before we all started going out and drinking. Dancing to Copacabana at a bar with half a load on is what makes life worth living.
But I like a lot of his stuff. Daybreak, It's a Miracle, his version of Let's Hang On (originally done by the Four Seasons) hell, even Mandy and I Write the Songs (a song he didn't write BTW) are good.
I'm glad he got this off his chest. I'm sorry he felt he had to wait. I still have no clue as to why this was news.
SPORTS: Hello Mets!
The Mets home opener at Citi Field was last Monday, and even though I was cooped up in my office, I still considered it a great day. I went to a bunch of Opening Days at Shea Stadium in the late 90's and the early 2000's, but my favorite opening day memory was my first one, 35 years ago. April 5, 1983.
The night before, I had watched my first NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Championship Game.
One I won't soon forget. Even if I did, I would get reminded of it year after year. Of course that was NC State-Houston, Phi Slama Jamma vs Jimmy Valvano's Survive and Advance boys. The game that ended with Derrick Whittenberg's missed shot being caught and put back by Lorenzo Charles at the buzzer, and Jimmy V running around like a madman when it was over. I even remember that in the days before One Shining Moment, they would put a tourney montage together to a relevant song on the charts at the time. That year they chose All Right by Christopher Cross and I thought that was cooler than Lorenzo Charles' game winning shot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXTxa1Xtgi0
Still glowing after what I had witnessed the night before, my dad and I went to opening day at Shea Stadium, 48,000 fans welcoming Tom Seaver back from a 5+ year exile in Cincinnati. His first batter faced was Pete Rose of the Phillies, and he struck him out on a low fastball. Seaver was 38 at the time and Rose about a week away from 42, but still I can say I saw Tom Seaver strike out Pete Rose live. The Mets won that game 2-0.
I still think that of all the sports, baseball's home opener is the best. It's a sign that spring is here and summer is right around the corner. I admit, it helps when your team has a shot at winning a title. I got annoyed when they lost to the Braves on Wednesday, not so much when they lost on Friday to Miami. On Friday I was just happy to see Zack Wheeler pitch without his arm falling off.
SPORTS: and Goodbye Rangers?
The Rangers play as they limp towards their first round playoff series with the Montreal Canadiens has not exactly inspired confidence. Since March 2, they've gone 7-7-4, not exactly firing on all cylinders.
Now coming into the season, my expectations weren't that high. Since they are tied up in cap space and didn't bring in anyone too exciting after a season in which they bowed out in the first round of the playoffs, I was expecting a down year. But some of the guys they did bring in exceeded expectations, and others who has struggled last year had comeback years, and they came flying out of the gate. They started to remind me of the 2014 and 2015 teams that made deep runs into the playoffs.
But lately, they have been playing the way I thought they were going to play. Sloppy special teams, and more alarmingly, little success on home ice. Now, some may point out that if they win all their road playoff games, (something they HAVE been good at) they'll win the Cup, because they most likely won't have home ice advantage in any of their series.
I don't care how they get there as long as they get there, but that doesn't seem like a winning formula. Hey, I hope to God they have a nice long run, the spring of 2014 was amazing, 2015 slightly less so and last spring quite frankly sucked. Here's hoping they can get it together and give us fans some excitement.
This week, we all learned that I like Barry Manilow and Christopher Cross. This is probably why they never asked me to go fight in the Middle East.
Probably not going to publish next week due to Easter. In this case, have a Happy Easter, and also a Happy Passover.
and Have a Great Week
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