Urban Hicks

I’m sure I can write many, many, many articles on people that I think are idiots. Most of them would be from Hollywood, as is today’s idiot.

I stumbled across this little tidbit from a recent interview with Susan Sarandon:

Q:Do you think your political activism has hurt your career?

A:I think that’s like worrying if your slip is showing while you’re fleeing a burning building. You just have to do what you have to do. The good news and the bad news is that Hollywood isn’t political.

Hollywood isn’t political? HOLLYWOOD ISN’T POLITICAL?!? Since when? Anybody that actually believes that is just as big of an idiot as she is.

My recent trip to the ballpark and subsequent posting brought to mind what I consider the greatest moment – the greatest play if you will – in baseball history.

At a game at Dodger Stadium in April 1976, two protestors of some sort ran on to the outfield and tried to burn the American flag. Rick Monday, who was playing center field for the Cubs, ran towards them, grabbed the flag on the run, and saved it from the burning. You can find the historic video here, along with some commentary by Rick Monday himself.

I’ll admit it – every time I watch that, I cry. And I would challenge anybody that has even the slightest modicum of love and respect for this country to not feel some sort of emotion at Rick Monday’s display of heroism.

One wonders what happened to the society that would spontaneously break out in to “God Bless America.” Some of that still exists. Liberals however, would probably say that Monday impeded the protestor’s right to free speech. In fact, I know that’s what they would say. A friend of mine witnessed a similar incident in college, when a member of the school’s ROTC swiped a flag that was being burned. He didn’t hear “God Bless America.” He heard “Oh – he shouldn’t have done that.”

Is America perfect? No. But there’s a lot more to be proud of than Barack Obama’s presidency (unless you’re Michele Obama). We need another generation of “God Bless America” instead of the current generation of Jerermiah Wright’s infamous “G-D America.”

Last night, Mrs. Hillbilly Deluxe surprised me with tickets to the Angels home opener. Sadly, I don’t make it out to the ballpark as much as I used to. Just busier I guess. But I try to make it out for at least one game per year.

It was an early start and traffic was awful so we missed the very beginning, which meant we missed the Star-Spangled Banner and the requisite USAF opening day flyover (although we did get to see the jets while we were in traffic).

But it was a great night at the ballpark. The Angels won and I was again reminded why baseball is such a great sport.

Baseball is probably the least expensive professional sport to attend live. At least out here in Anaheim. I love Angel Stadium because there’s not really a bad seat and you can get tickets for as cheap as $12. Plus they allow in outside food which saves money right there. Mrs. HD and I took in our own sandwiches and just bought some sodas in the park.

Also, there’s still a great since of “Americana” associated with baseball. Although baseball is one of, if not the most international sport, being in the park last night gave me that feeling of “This is still America’s pastime.” Maybe it’s the vendor throwing peanuts. Perhaps it was the recognition of the flyover pilots and the ovation they received. It could be the singing of “God Bless America” along with the traditional singing of “Take Me Out To the Ball Game.”

Yep. It’s all of that and more. Families spending time together, not in front of a TV. Fans faithfully keeping score on their own score sheet. Just being out of the house on a beautiful night, enjoying an American institution.

I’ll concede that baseball’s had it’s share of black eyes. Steroids of course. The Black Sox scandal and Pete Rose’s gambling. The player’s union. Some of it’s just not good.

But despite the “internationalization” or a small handful of morons doing ‘roids, baseball is still America.

As previously stated, I was on vacation for a couple of weeks and have been trying to get back into the swing of things. 

Last year, I’d was trying to sway Mrs. Hillbilly Deluxe into an August trip to Tennessee capped off by the Bristol night race. She countered with “How about Europe?” Long story short, we ended up with two weeks in England, which was a very nice time.

Here now are a few general thoughts:

- Driving on the right side of the car on the left side of the road isn’t really all that hard (though my apologies to the drivers I inadvertently cut off in the round-abouts).

- There were a lot of continental Europeans there (mostly French). They’re totally rude. If they bumped into you or something, they wouldn’t even acknowledge it.  The locals (i.e. the Brits) I conversed with were generally pleasant and is was even more so the further we got out into the country.

- Due to the bombings on buses and in the underground a couple of years ago, it was almost unnerving to get around London. However, since England doesn’t have an ACLU and seems to be all about wiretaps and surveillance cameras everywhere, it helped mitigate any fears. 

- If you want fish ‘n’ chips – don’t get them at a pub. But they’re big into their sausage. If it wasn’t for health concerns, I probably would have tried a different sausage (or “banger”) every night.- The farther you go outside of London, the better the ales get. I always tried a local ale when we were in the country. The bad thing is, we can’t get them over here.

- We got a chance to see the royal family – at a public unveiling of a statue of the Queen Mother. That was a cool little deal. We also saw Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) from across the street, and Mohammed Al-Fayed, walking around Harrod’s.

- Somebody actually had an “Obama – Biden” bumper sticker on their car. I’m certain it was placed there before Obama made the asinine and insulting decision to return a bust of Winston Churchill that was a gift from England and before he gave P.M. Brown such a thoughtless, meaningless, and stupid gift upon his arrival. The Brits need another Margaret Thatcher (and we need another Ronald Reagan). 

- It was sort of humbling to have a meal and drink a pint in the very room in the same pub where The Inklings (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, et al) met to eat and drink and discuss literature, religion, and whatever else they discussed. That was worth the trip to Oxford alone. 

- It was also quite humbling to literally walk in the footsteps of Sir Winston Churchill, at Dover, in London, and at Blenheim. Churchill famously stated “You ask what is our policy? I will say: it is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might…You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: victory. …Victory at all costs, victory in spite of terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival!”

As we learned a lot about Churchill, I couldn’t help but wonder what he would think about the current state of the U.K. Let’s face it – it’s unfettered immigration of radical Islamics has contributed to it’s insecurity as a country. WWCD – what would Churchill do? What would he do as Prime Minister of a country that faced that threat? What would he say about the namby-pamby liberal politicians whose policies led to such a threat? And what would he say about the U.S.? One could only imagine he’d express disdain, disgust, and would probably whip out a classic Churchillism, such as “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile – hoping it will eat him last.” And I continue to wonder, possibly as Churchill would, as to what happened to such a great nation. A nation that fought and defended itself in 2 world wars, at times, seemingly against overwhelming odds. Much like America, they succeeded because of their indomitable spirit. Sadly, I believe that spirit is lacking in both nations right now.

The more I think about it, I’ve concluded that the short time I spent in the footsteps, actions, and words of Winston Churchill were some of the most memorable times of our trip. He was a great man, a great leader of England, and a man not without his wit. So I leave this post with one last shot of Churchillian wisdom: “The Almighty in His infinite wisdom, did not see fit to create Frenchmen in the image of Englishmen.”

Well, I’m recently back from vacation, which accounts for the lack of postings here lately. I’ll have some thoughts on that trip forthcoming.

But in the interim, feast on this tidbit of stupidity.

So, a bank isn’t stupid with their loans (ahem, Freddie & Fannie), is solvent, isn’t asking the Feds for money, and they’re criticized for it? I suppose they should have blown their investor’s money on bad loans with people that would have defaulted by now.

I’m telling you, it’s becoming Bizarro World.

First thing’s first about today’s race. Matt Kenseth is my guy. There are a handful of other races I’ll pull for if the #17 isn’t in contention. But on race day, I’m wearing a De Walt Racing t-shirt and hat. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited about today’s win. A lot of great stories centered around that win: Roush Racing 0-20 at Daytona, Kenseth not having won in over a year, starting dead last in a backup car, the rookie crew chief (with the humorous last name of “Blickensderfer”). I like that.

Now, I’ll qualify that with an “I wish he’d won it racing.” Anybody who’s read my posts related to rain-shortened races knows that I hate them. Especially when people “race” to the weather.  Nope – don’t like it one bit. But as with anybody that wins a rain-shortened race, Kenseth was in the right place at the right time. And really, if he didn’t have that good of a car, he wouldn’t have been in that place. He started dead last and consistently and steadily worked his way up through the pack.

One thing that sort of annoyed me (for lack of a better word I suppose), was the “surprise” of where he was at by the broadcasters. Sure, he hasn’t had much success at restrictor-plate tracks, but if you look at it strictly on paper, it wasn’t that much of a surprise. All of the Roush cars ran fairly well at the Bud Shootout (except for Biffle getting in several wrecks) and they were doing OK in practice. In fact, I believe Kenseth was 2nd or so in final practice. And finished 10th in the Nationwide race. So I wouldn’t have called it much of a stretch. And with this new breakthrough, can a road-racing win be far behind?

Other thoughts from Daytona:

Stewart ran well.

Logano’s wreck wasn’t his fault. You gotta feel sorry for him.

Dale Jr. is a really big whiner. Yeah, I realize that an exorbitant amount of NASCAR fans are Jr. fans (not for much in the way of accomplishments seemingly, but because his last name is “Earnhardt”), but he was boo hooing big time tonight. Mostly related to his pit road penalty. Quote: “We had a pit stop where I was told the right-front tire was only an inch over the line. I was held a lap for that and I don’t feel like that was a fair trade. Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate that rule.” What – re-evaluate the rule because you’re Dale Jr. and you got dinged? Rules are rules. If somebody else had gotten penalized for the exact same thing, would Jr. be beating the drum to have it changed? Nope. And it’ll be interesting to see if he’s penalized for getting into Vickers. I don’t believe it was intentional but it sure was stupid driving.

So that’s the beginning of the season. I like it so far. Stay tuned.

A lot of people are making much of and celebrating Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday right now. And some nimrods seem to want to draw parallels between him and Barack Obama.

I however, do not celebrate Abraham Lincoln at all. Personally, I blame him for the current state of the union. Personally, I believe he waged an illegal, imperialistic war against the South who could and did make a reasonable Constitutional argument for secession.

Now, please don’t take that to mean that I’m some sort of racist that wants to go back to segregation or slavery or anything like that. I’m not like that at all. But anybody who wants to make the Civil War (which by definition was not a civil war) solely about slavery is dead wrong. It was about State’s Rights. Granted, the South put too much emphasis on their “right” to have slaves, which again, I believe was wrong.

But Lincoln wasn’t the Great Emancipator that everybody makes him out to be – not at first anyway. He supported the Corwin Amendment, which stated that no amendment would be made to the Constitution that would authorize Congress to abolish slavery. Lincoln himself said in his March 4, 1861 inaguaral address, that “I have no purpose…to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.” He probably changed his mind when he realized it was good PR for the War of Northern Aggression.

And what does that have to do with the current state of the union? A state’s inability to secede subjects them to the whim of an overbearing central government, with no recourse. The Federal Government has grown WAY beyond what the Framers intended and we’ve sat back and allowed it. That’s why I support strict Constructionist judges in the US Supreme Court. The Liberals will create decisions out of whole cloth that don’t even exist in the Constitution (hello – Roe vs. Wade). The Conservatives let the Constitution speak for itself.

The Declaration of Independence states: “…That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

I think we should split the country in two – “Lefty Land” and “The Conservative Confines.” Or, pick your own names. Split that sucker right down then middle (I want everything from Texas, west) and see which ideas (conservative vs. liberal) result in a healthy, stable country.

All joking aside, I do believe that our particular government has become “destructive” and while it doesn’t necessarily need to be abolished, it definitely needs to be changed. And not that baloney “change” that Obama is selling. Real change, which takes us back to our founding principles – the principles that made this country great (up until the 1930s anyway). But that’s the great thing about America – we can make that change. By electing people who realize their job is to serve us, not rule us.

So go ahead and celebrate Lincoln while I pine for the days when State’s Rights mattered and people took more responsibility for their own well being, rather than relying on the Big Brother of the Federal Government.

For a semi-interesting, OK-written fictional book on a modern-day attempt at secession, check out “America’s Last Days” by Douglas MacKinnon.

I’d like to take a break from berating idiotic politicians to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year. No, not Christmas as the song goes. The return of NASCAR! 

Last night we got a preview of the Great American Race, with the 75 lap Budweiser Shootout. Pretty good race for the final 20 or so laps. Roush-Fenway actually looked decent (a surprise at a restrictor-plate track), Hendrick looked good as usual, and perhaps not surprisingly, the sole car of the newly-formed Stewart-Haas racing (of course, driving by Tony Stewart) looked good as well – a strong start for a new team. Didn’t get much of a look at rookies Joey Logano or open-wheeler Scott Speed, due to an early-race incident that really had nothing to do with either of them – they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. And although he wasn’t in the Shootout, Bill Elliot has been running strong in practice and the initial round of qualifying.

Today’s qualifying proved interesting as well. Martin Truex Jr. and Mark Martin going 1-2 for the front row for next Sunday’s race. This could be Martin’s year. He almost one a couple of years back and he’s with Hendrick now. Now, the waiting game. The dual duels are up on Thursday and will set the rest of the field. Ain’t it the best time of the year? 

So, BHO has been hitting the media outlets, decrying anybody that’s opposed to his non-stimulus package (which, by the way, more and more Americans are becoming wary of).

Maybe…you know…if it was an actual real stimulus package, more people would actually support it. But no, they have to leave a ton of useless, wasteful, non-stimulating crap in it. And because a bunch of Congresspeople don’t want to blow any more money on something that won’t work, they’re wrong or evil or partisan or whatever. 

So much for the new, bi-partisan tone in Washington. 

For a little levity, check out “Jon David’s” recent post over at Big Hollywood. Hilarious.