After Atlanta finished with a losing record last year and head coach Jim Mora was fired, I couldn't wait for the new season to start.  Offensive guru Bobby Petrino was hired, signed up some very good assistant coaches, and my excitement level for the 2007 season was pretty high.  I couldn't wait to see a defense that attacked instead of the "bend don't break" philosophy.  I couldn't wait to see future superstar Jerious Norwood featured more at running back.  And I REALLY couldn't wait to see what Michael Vick was going to do in this wide-open style of offense.  Well things didn't exactly turn out that way.  Michael Vick goes to jail for almost two years on dogfighting charges, and coward-supreme Bobby Petrino quits with three games to go.  The 2007 Atlanta Falcons season has been beyond a disappointment.  In fact, let me compare it to something like this - You get set up on a blind date.  You see a picture of the girl and she is STUNNING!  You give her a call and she is intelligent, funny, and even loves horror movies, video games, football, and heavy metal.  She even talks about how the movie for The Hulk just sucked because it wasn't anything like the comic.  You're excited beyond belief and can't wait to meet her.  And then you do, and her friend somehow forgot to tell you about that little bout of flesh-eating bacteria that ate most of her face off.  That's what the 2007 Atlanta Falcons season has been like...so much promise only to be about the biggest train-wreck I've ever sat through with this team, and there have been many in the past.  And Bobby Petrino...good riddance.  One thing I can't stand is a coward...and he pulled one of the most cowardly acts I've seen in football.  He doesn't have the guts to address the players he's quitting, he lies to the owner of the team, has to almost be forced to tell the assistant coaches he's quitting...what a spineless wimp.  I'm glad he went to Arkansas, because that game next year against Georgia will have much more to it to me...I want UGA to absolutely demolish that team.  And while Petrino is there, I will basically cheer for anyone who is playing Arkansas.  What a scumbag.  This guy basically quit on the team in about week 5 from what I'm hearing, and he knew then he wanted to leave.  Oh my, he's in a position he's not happy with...boo hoo hoo.  HONOR YOUR COMMITMENTS!!!!  Be a man and have some balls to at least finish the season.  To shake the owner's hand on Monday telling him that he's going to stay with Atlanta, and then quit the next day to get hired by Arkansas shows what a liar and a fraud this guy is.

Originally I hadn't planned on watching "I Am Legend" this weekend.  Now I did want to see it, but for whatever reason didn't feel the need to rush out to watch it...until I read some reviews.  I saw some that mentioned how the ending was controversial because of the religious overtones.  In other words, someone said "God".  I'm not going to give anything away, but give me a break!  Someone mentions they heard from God in a movie, and it turns out to have validity, and all of the sudden it has "controversy".  You know what cracks me up?  Here I am, a right-wing conservative Christian who is supposed to be EXTREMELY intolerant and judgmental, yet the ones who are supposedly so open-minded and multi-cultural are the first ones who scream and cry like a little girl when something "offends" them.  Shouldn't it be the other way around based on how someone like me is labeled?  Mention God in something and they scream about cramming religion down their throats.  Say you don't support gay marriage and they take to the streets screaming about how persecuted they are.  Draw a cartoon of Muhammed and the "religion of peace" starts blowing stuff up.  Meanwhile I'm at home watching a movie or playing video games...yet I'm the one who is supposedly so uptight and intolerant.  Anyway, I watched the movie...eh...I didn't think it was that great.  I mean it was ok, but since I've seen "The Omega Man" and "The Last Man On Earth" already, the movie wasn't anything ground-breaking.  The previews definitely made it look more interesting than it was.  At least I still have the new Rambo movie to look forward to in January...oh man I can't wait.

Another movie I watched was a documentary called "Crazy Love".  I really have no clue why I got it, but I found myself in Blockbuster this weekend to trade in the DVD's I got in the mail for free in-store rentals (man I love Blockbuster online).  I absolutely love a good documentary because real-life is usually way more interesting than most movies.  I saw the box to this one, it didn't tell me much, but it sounded a little out there so I got it.  Holy crap what a messed up story.  Now I've known some drama queens in my life, and have also known a guy or two who got a wee bit obsessive about a girl they liked, but absolutely nothing I've ever heard compared to this one.  The story is about a guy named Burt Pugach who was a very wealthy lawyer in New York.  Back in the 1950's he met a woman named Linda and fell completely in love with her.  They went out for a while and then she found out he was married.  Well he told her he was getting a divorce, and even showed her the court docs to back it up.  It turned out the papers were forged and she dumped him.  Later on she met another guy and was close to getting married.  Burt snapped and hired two guys to throw acid in her face...basically if he couldn't have her then no one would want her.  The two guys did it, and it left Linda blind in one eye and both eyes badly disfigured.  Burt goes to jail for many years.  Now you may have heard of this story, because while watching it I remembered seeing them on Geraldo once back in the 1990's...and they even showed that clip.  After the guy got out of prison, they ended up GETTING MARRIED!  Can you believe that???  Now I have known some insane people when it comes to relationships, the kind that when you listen to them talk about the problems or whatever you think to yourself "well good luck with all that", but I can't even fathom this kind of psychosis.  If you want to watch the most screwed-up love story ever, check this movie out.  We've all done stupid stuff when it comes to getting dumped or breaking up with someone, and at the time we're so wrapped up in emotions you don't think logically.  But to think that this guy hired two dudes to throw acid in her face, and years later she actually marries the guy is mind-boggling!  Listening to them talk about it had my jaw on the floor in amazement.  And the best part?  Linda's friends were the ones who actually thought it was a good idea if she hooked up with this guy when he got out of jail!  But then again I shouldn't be surprised based on the mental state of a few women I've known in my life...hahaha.

And now for some politics.  Late Monday night I was online paying some bills and decided to check out www.drudgereport.com to see what evil conservatives might be up to.  I saw a link for some new TV ad by presidential candidate Mike Huckabee with some kind of headline about a "floating cross" featured in the new ad.  There was also another link with some caption about Huckabee's new ad being over the top as far as religion.  So I got done paying some bills and checking out some stories about my pathetic Falcons, and went to bed.  Tuesday morning I'm driving to work listening to Steve Gill.  Now I really don't like his show because he's way too "Republican good, Democrat bad".  It REALLY ticked me off when WLAC here in Nashville put his show in the place of Glenn Beck.  Listening to Beck in the morning was a great way to start the day, and now I'm stuck with Steve Gill.  I know, I could just listen to music on the drive in to work, but talk radio keeps me calmer during rush hour stress.  He starts the show by ripping into Huckabee's new ad.  Oh wait, he first mentioned about Fred Thompson and something about him picking up momentum in Iowa or whatever.  I mention this because Gill wrote a book called "The Fred Factor" which strikes me as one big butt-kissing fest for Fred Thompson.  Personally I don't support Thompson, I think he's a horrible candidate, and I really don't get the love affair with him.  Maybe it's because he's from Tennessee and the radio guys here all want to be his buddy, I have no idea.  And for the record, I'm not supporting Mike Huckabee either...I'm for Alan Keyes, Tom Tancredo, and Duncan Hunter...basically the only guys with a clue who don't have a chance.  So Gill loves Thompson, and seems to do what he can to help him out.  Hey, it's his show so he can support whoever he wants.  But the one thing I can't stand about politics is trashing someone when there is no reason to all for political gain.  Let me give you an example of how much Steve Gill loves Fred Thompson - In the last debate, a question was asked for a show of hands as to who believes global warming is a problem and is man-made.  Thompson said he wasn't going to play any games and would answer if given the chance.  Gill called this a "Reagan-esque" moment.  I'm not kidding.  I heard him say that and just laughed.  Yeah, Fred Thompson refusing to do a hand-raise is right up there with "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall".  I went into this lengthy explanation about his love for Fred Thompson as some background, and now back to the Huckabee ad.  Gill starts ripping into Huckabee about this ad...one that I hadn't heard yet...and went on and on about it being the equivalent of a TV evangelist, it was way over the top with the cross behind him, and even compared it to the parts of the Gospels where Jesus told the disciples not to pray in public to be seen by men as to how religious you are.  He went on and on about how he doesn't want a candidate who wears his faith on his sleeve...but then also said he wants a man of faith in office so whatever.  He then trashed Huckabee on a personal level about his un-Christian behavior while governor of Arkansas...which I really have no idea about and it doesn't really matter to me since I'm not supporting him anyway.  Well I knew I had to see this ad, so when I got to work and took care of a crisis or two that awaits me every morning, I checked out the ad online.  I watched it two or three times truly wondering what in the heck the big deal was.  Mike Huckabee is sitting in front of a Christmas tree, and basically says that sometimes people need a break from politics and need to remember what this time of year is about...it's about the birth of Jesus Christ and spending time with your family.  Then he wished everyone a Merry Christmas.  No I'm serious, go to youtube.com and do a search for it and see it for yourselves....that was it!  Gill was ripping into this guy for saying that Christmas is about the birth of Christ and spending time with your family.  How dare Huckabee do that!  Oh wait, the floating cross.  Yeah, this was another thing Huckabee was taken to task over.  You know what it was?  There is a bookcase behind him, and as most bookcases have, there is a shelf that intersects with a divider.  If no one mentioned it was supposed to be a cross, I NEVER would have thought it was.  To me it looks like sections of a bookcase...nothing more.  And the "floating" comes from the camera which does a slow pan during the ad, and we all know ads NEVER pan or do very slow zooms.  The entire deal made out of it is beyond ridiculous.  Normally I would only expect some anti-God crybaby liberal to make such a fuss over this, but hearing Steve Gill do it showed me that he plays the game of politics like everyone else does...as if I didn't know already.  I can GUARANTEE if Fred Thompson had done this same ad that Steve Gill would have sung his praises for the whole show, saying how refreshing it was to see a candidate speaking from the heart and not being afraid to talk about his faith in Christ.  Gill's hangup is that Thompson's poll numbers are sucking right now while Huckabee is gaining a lot of momentum.  Again, I don't support Huckabee so I really don't care.  But to show you how uninformed Gill is about everything outside of the world of Fred Thompson, he made a remark the other day after the same debate where Thompson had his "Reagan-esque" moment about Alan Keyes.  Steve Gill wondered when Alan Keyes got involved and all he does is pound the podium about how he's being shut-out of debates.  Well, Alan Keyes got involved quite a while back and has been in some debates already.  In fact, Alan Keyes is the one candidate that I truly think "gets it" on all fronts.  Keyes is a very sharp man, and he is beyond grounded in his values and beliefs.  But Steve Gill laughs him off basically, so that tells me how little he cares to know about someone with some real substance to them.  Heck, I caught a little bit of Sean Hannity last week when Alan Keyes was on, and Hannity who is the EPITOME of "Republican good, Democrat bad" was obviously not a fan of Mr. Keyes by the way he handled the interviews.  But I guess that's to be expected when someone defines themselves more by party politics than strong core values.  When I ran for the U.S. Senate last year, a guy named Steve Hilton who has a show in Jackson, TN had me on his show twice for the full show because he believed in what I was doing.  He also made the option available to Harold Ford and Bob Corker, the "real" candidates" to appear as well.  They both declined.  Now this radio show covered most of west Tennessee, so it's not like it was a small-town AM station.  They wanted to go on safe shows where they'd be allowed to skate around the tough questions.  I think I was asked back because the first time I was as blunt as someone could be.  I hate party politics, and that's what most shows are...except Glenn Beck and Michael Savage.  Oh, and Alan Keyes actually had the guts to appear on the debate put on by Value Voters...something Fred Thompson was too gutless to do.  Oh yeah, Mike Huckabee was there too.  This was a debate where candidates were asked REAL questions and were pressed for SPECIFIC answers.  No wonder Gulliani, Romney, McCain, and Thompson were too cowardly to show up.  I have ZERO support for someone who blows off a debate because I know how hard I tried to get on the ones here in Tennessee during the Senate race.  Most debates are just some big show and don't really go anywhere...but that one by Value Voters truly discussed real issues, and the candidates made a good showing.  I know someone would say "well the big 4 had too much to lose by showing up" and that's the EXACT reason I don't support any of them.  Go check out Huckabee's latest TV ad on youtube...is it really such a travesty?  God forbid someone say that this time of year is about the birth of Christ and spending time with your family.  That's just wrong on SO many levels...end of sarcasm.  I just really have a problem when someone points fingers at someone else's un-Christian behavior.  It's one thing when that rat Benny Hinn robs people of money to cure them, but to rag on Mike Huckabee's latest TV ad is complete bs.  Again, I am not a Mike Huckabee supporter at all so take this rant however you want.

But hey, it is Christmas time which meant my annual attempt to take a picture in front of my tree with my dogs.  Yeah I know, it may be corny but they're like my kids and I felt the need to preserve the season in pictures.  I swear, I think Vic is camera shy.  Normally when I bring the dogs in the house they both act like Cujo on speed, but when I led them to the tree, Vic sprawled on the floor.  So when I set the timer on the camera I would literally have to scoop him up so he would at least look interested.  This is kind of hard to do with a 60 pound dog squirming in my other arm when Vic weighs about 110.  I think I tried about 15 photos, and this was the best I could get.  What's weird is that when I would get done with a photo and grab the camera to look at it, Vic would bolt to the back door to go outside...again I think he's camera shy because it was cold as heck the night I did these.  So here you go...Merry Christmas from me, Vic, and Jessi!

Have a great Christmas, sportsfans!  This weekend starts slugfest as I take a week and a half off work...oh man I can't wait.  But don't worry, I'll be back next week for my patented year end awards!