To the victor go the spoils.

First, the St. Louis Cardinals won this year's World Series by defeating the Detroit Tigers. And now St. Louis surpassed Detroit in the "most dangerous city in the country" category. Sometimes it is better to lose.

October.

October has always been my favorite month. What I love about October is watching the leaves change. September, a lot of times, is an extension of Summer. And November is more like Winter with its rain and cold. There is something magical about all the colors that you see in nature this time of year, especially here in Pennsylvania. The tree-covered mountains take on a beauty which escapes capture by words or by my low-end cell phone camera. You simply have to see it for yourself.

PA Republicans.

Yesterday, as I was ignoring the nightly news, I heard the anchor announce that President Bush is coming to Northeastern Pennsylvania to attend a fundraiser for the "embattled" Congressman Don Sherwood. Embattled in this case means that Sherwood had a mistress who called 911 one day because she feared for her life. What is interesting is that if Sherwood were a Democrat, the Republicans would nail his ass to the wall like they did with Clinton over Monica Lewinsky. But since he is one of them, there is no mention of this being a problem. Otherwise why would the President come here for a fundraiser? Also recently the other Republican party's gift to Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum, compared the war in Iraq to J.R.R.Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings. My undergraduate degree is in English so I am used to comparing and contrasting things, but after pondering this for a while I still do not get it. One is an unnecessary waste of American lives and the other is a classic of English literature. With senators like these, who needs terrorists. God help us if they get re-elected.

Damn Yankees.

Cory Lidle is dead. He died in a fiery crash when his plane collided with is a Manhattan building. By now this is not news, but I wanted to write about his death because it seemed to me symbolic of the Yankees performance lately. They have fallen into a holding pattern, if I may use an airplane related term here, of signing big names only to see them fail in a spectacular fashion. A perfect example of this is Randy "The Redneck" Johnson who went from being the best left handed pitcher to being just an old guy with a bad back. The Yankees should have traded for him back in 2002 after he, with some help from the Diamondbacks, won the World Series. Alex Rodriguez, whose plane just overshot the runaway, is another example of the spectacular failure pattern. At one point, he was the highest paid baseball player in the Majors. But at the time he played for the George W. Bush owned Texas Rangers and we all know how capable Bush is in the good judgement department. Don't get me wrong I am a Yankees fan, but lately they make it very hard to root for them when they squander money only to see it go up in smoke. If they want to waste millions they might as well sign me.

Columbus Day.

Yesterday was Columbus Day, a holiday which should be abolished. It should be abolished not because it may be offensive to Native Americans who discovered America when their ancestors crossed over the Bering Strait from Asia during the last Ice Age. But because Columbus should not be celebrated at all. He did not discover America. He stumbled upon the Caribbean, the island of San Salvador to be exact, where he landed on October 21, 1492. To put it simply, the man got lost and now we celebrate him as a great explorer. Sad, very sad. Also, America was named after Amerigo Vespucci who explored America but we do not bother to erect his statues in public places or name avenues after him. And what about Leif Ericson, the first European who actually landed on the North American continent centuries before Columbus got lost?

How low can they go.

Yesterday, while I was visiting my friend Leather Penguin, actually I was visiting his site since he lives on a small, not-so-tropical island off the coast of New York, I saw something that amazed and amused me. As I was scrawling down his site I saw an advertisement for a blog by non other than our "beloved" (insert massive amounts of sarcasm here) Senator Rick Santorum. I clicked on it and, after viewing a few entrees, laughed. It is truly laughable that politicians will use anything to get us to vote for them. I have already received something in the mail from him, had my enjoyment of C.S.I. and spin offs interrupted by his commercials, and see campaign signs along every road in town. This, however, is something I was not expecting. I know that politicians embrace the Internet in their bid for election or re-election, but this, in my not-so-humble opinion is too far. For Pete's sake, leave blogging to those of us that don't occupy an elected office from which to spew their drivel in form of legislation and sound bites and who will not be seen on Beat The Press or Mace The Nation, as an ex-girlfriend of mine used to call them. Having said this, I would like to announce my candidacy for the US Senate as a Senator from Pennsylvania under the "Blogging for Bloggers" platform. I am The Ignorant Immigrant and I approved this message.

Election season.

October is upon us which means that the number of election ads is going to increase. Actually it has increased already to the point that I don't want to watch regular television. I am tired of politician after politician proclaiming that they approve the message and what follows is an insult to their opponents and our intelligence. I am begining to think that elections should be desided by boxing matches, bare knuckle boxing matches. I am sure that people would pay to see these.