David Ortiz or David Or-Tease

This is a familiar sight for Red Sox fans the last 2 or 3 years. He looks lost, he looks old, he looks finished. But is he? Lets think about this logically:

David Ortiz was the scariest hitter in MLB for a good 3 years, possibly more. Assuming that steroids have a major impact on the player's performance I would have to say that that must have the most major impact on his decline in performance. Do i think that taking steroids makes you a better baseball player? Absolutely not. Steroids make you a better athlete however. Steroids allow you to train hard and put the rigors of a long season on your body and recover quickly from injuries and fatigue. Im sure it allows you to play harder too. Swing harder, run harder, throw harder, with significantly reduced risk of injury. If you look at Ortiz's career with Minnesota, you will see he was not very effective while playing first base full time. Why? he has bad knees. He is not the most trim and fit fellow so he couldnt go up to the plate in the late innings after playing first base all day and probably the day before and expect to put a good swing on theball. I am not a professional athlete so this is pure speculation by the way. I think I'm right though. The last year of his Minnesota tenure brought his best statistical season of his short career. Many players do this. They have a rookie contract (or regular contract for that matter) and in the last year put up huge numbers in hopes of attracting a big contract in the following offseason. Judging by his on-base-percentage (OBP) it seems like he has always had a good eye at the plate. He never really had a great offensive season in terms of HR or RBI or even batting average until he got to Boston. Fenway Park is much tougher ball park for left handed hitters than the old Minnesota (indoor) stadium was, so you can't say that he had a Mike Lowell-esque resurgence (sp?). It had to be the juice.

I'm sure having Future Hall of Famer Manny Ramirez hitting behind him helped in getting him better pitches to hit, but I really dont think it was the reason he did SO well and the reason he is no longer the feared hitter that he used to be. I mean c'mon Sox fans, do you really expect a guy with that kind of weight and poor athletic ability to keep up 45+ for more than 3-5 years?!?! Homeboy had 28 last year and basically took the first half of the season off!

Did Ortiz take steroids? yes. Did Ortiz benefit from having one of the best right handed hitters in the last 50 years (definately top 5) hitting behind him? yes. But I saw a little of the game yesterday against Minnesota that leads me to believe that Ortiz just flat out isnt the same player any more. He doesnt have the swagger, that fearlessness that he had for a couple of years. Am I saying that he cant be an effective hitter and solid hitter? NO. is he going to hit 45 homers and 100+ RBI in the #3 hole? no. Heres what I saw:

everyone knows that the way to get Ortiz out now is to pound him inside. Im not saying anything new, pitchers have seen this for almost 2 seasons. Ortiz a couple of years ago owned the inside of the plate, and you were a fool to throw anything near the plate in general. Except you had Manny Ramirez up next and HAD to pitch to Ortiz. But here is something I saw that changed my opinion of Ortiz. The pitcher (whose name I cannot remember. It was in the later innings though, 8th or 9th) left a juicy fastball right over the center of the plate. Ortiz fouled it off. I mean this was a pitch that Pedroia and Youkilis would have blistered. It happens. Hitting a baseball is hard to do and you are going to miss those now and then. I mean we are talking about a sport here that if you are sucessful only 3 out of 10 at bats, you are a freakin hall of famer (.300 batting average)!! The difference was that 4 years ago if Ortiz had fouled off that pitch he was angry. He couldnt believe that he missed it, he was livid at himself. He probably said to himself "What the fuck David, how could you miss that?!?!?!". Then got up there and said to himself "pull that shit again motherfucker and see what happens to you". and he was right. the pitcher did that again and the ball was headed into the seats faster than it had been served up to him. His demeanor yesterday told me that he was upset that he missed it, and he got up there and said "boy i hope that happens again cuz i really could use an easy pitch to hit". His swagger is gone and that same fearlessness he had in '05 is apparently lost.

Dont give up yet Red Sox fans. He still is in the last year of his current contract and we know how players perform then. We are two weeks into the season and he has gotten off to a slow start. I say put him twords the bottom of the lineup and let him feel less pressure. He will be fine. I predict a .260 batting average with 32 home runs and 94 RBI. Pretty freakin good for a #6 hitter.

Tunes, Movies, and Sliders

Awesome week for yours truely. It seemed like every night I had something going on, which is pretty rare for me. Although it differed in context, the content remained basically the same and consisted mainly of drinking, eating, listening to/playing music and hanging with awesome friends.

I obviously worked every day. I actually love my job so I never get the "Monday's" or I never think of Wednesday as "Hump Day". In fact if I ever look forward to the end of the week its because this neighborhood is swarming with young girls who like to wear very little clothing on Thursdays -Saturdays. Eye candy is always nice.

Allow me to fill you in on my post-work week:

Monday- I decided to stay in after a booze filled Easter Sunday day. I ate takeout and watched televised poker, Family Guy, and Seinfeld (my new favorite thing to watch even though I've seen every episode 94 times).

Tuesday- I also stayed in. boy so far this week is kind of boring! Give me a break it's Tuesday. If you start going out on Tuesdays you get bogged down pretty quickly, so back off.

Wednesday - I had a horn rehearsal at Jason's house (he lives very close to the office which is convenient) for our gig on Friday. It was cool to see Jason and Josh and Matt and we were able to crank out some vicious new horn lines for the show on Friday. They make me want to make the face depicted above.

Jason went to see Clash of the Titans afterwards and we started talking about movies and he found out I hadnt seen Avatar and was fairly suprised by this. He convinced me to see it as soon as possible. I am very excited about Clash of the Titans as well. The first one made back in like the 70's was AWESOME. Jason agreed and let me know later that the remake wasnt really that good, so I'm a little nervous about this.

Thursday - Now we start to pick up speed a little bit. After yet another great day at work me, John-Christian (from now on called "JC") and Thomas Kim (from now on called "TK") went to see The Bad Plus. Tim went too but he was going with his roommate. The Bad Plus are probably my favorite jazz trio of all time. They are so tight and inventive and awesome in every way. Dave King is their drummer and for me he is The Bad Plus. Here is a rad picture of him:
















He so awesome and I love everything about his playing. In fact I would probably be hesitent to see them without Dave King. Its so inspiring I actually wish I played the drums whenever I see him.

It was actually not their best show. I have definately seen them play much better together, but its still such an awesome group that even though it wasnt their best effort it was still a totally killer show. I kinda wish I went to see them again while they were here, but my schedule and other activities prevented this from happening.

Friday - I was scheduled to rock the legendary Bitter End with Jason Yudoff and the New Hotness at 10 PM that evening, so I had some time to kill before the show. What better way to spend this than consuming libations with friends? I met JC and Kristine at The Peculiar Pub located right next door to the Bitter End and I was followed shortly by Dave and Julie. We drank delicious Six Points beer out of liter mugs. I had 2 i think and was pretty buzzed, but in a fun way, not a debilitating way. The Bitter End is always running late so around 10 minutes to 10 i headed next door. It was kind of a dick move honestly, I should show up sooner but i was trying to finish my second liter of beer without chugging it and I took advantage of Bitter End's perpetual lateness issue, which again I kinda regret.

We rocked out. Jason is totally awesome and I love playing in his band. The pic above is actually me warming up at the Bitter End and here is a pic of the band backstage before the same show.










So that was a ton of fun. Since I work on Saturdays and already a little drunk, I decided it was time for me to go home after the show so I split a cab with some of my peeps to save time and money.



A great day, got home at a reasonable hour and woke up the next morning bright eyed and bushy tailed for another day at the office.

Saturday- After work I walked down to meet JC and Kristine for sushi on 11th and 1st. It was awesome and super cheap. Kristine and I were contemplating ordering about 16 rolls due to the cheapness and just doggin out on sushi till we couldnt move. I'm glad we decided against it, but am I?

After sushi JC had a show with his awesome quartet Das Vibenbass down at Arlene's Grocery. A very well known music club in the city. These guys put on a hell of a show and you should totally check them out http://www.dasvibenbass.com/. After the show we drank beers and hung out and then I went finally go see Avatar. I was underwhelmed. I think its something you should see in theatres, but not for the movie, for the visuals. I found the story to be very weak and very cheesy. Visually though, especially the 3D, it was stunning.

Sunday- METS GAME. so much fun. Kristine made sliders and brought them to the game. They were so awesome! She said that there was some pork in there as well. All of them had cheese and some of them had those spicy peppers that im not even going to attempt to spell. They are in the Olive Garden salad. Elizabeth brought a backpack full of snack foods. We drank several beers and enjoyed perfect weather at a boring baseball game. The Mets are terrible.

After the game we went to a dive bar near my house where I watched the Rangers get elimated from the playoffs. It was really too bad because Lundqvist has been a stud all season and he was a total stud in their last game. He had something like 46 saves in the game, which is insane. After the game we continued to drink beer and whiskey and watched the end of The Masters. We talked about Phil Mickelson not gettin it done throughout the first part of his career and then going on a Majors tear. he has at least 4 now. I then crushed Michael T (who wear a skin tight pineapple shirt all day, which was hilarious) at a single trek of Big Buck Hunter. Then I went home and went to bed.

An awesome week! Lets see what this week has in store.

have a positive day

Easter Awesomeness, Baseball is Back, Football news

Easter was friggin awesome! The weather was beautiful and I spent the day with some great friends on their roof in breathtaking Greenpoint, Brooklyn. What a day! Kristine made an awesome Easter feast comprised of a delicious ham, garlic mashed potatoes, cheddar biscuts (thank you Red Lobster), a very tasty onion and vegetable patty thingy that was rad, vegan salsa, and a few small cheesecakes. And OH! meat pie. how could i forget the meat pie!?!?!?! I was so full, especially since i havent been eating much meat over the last few months.

I would say there were about 10 or so people there and we all had an awesome time. Basically we sat on a sun soaked roof all day and drank wine and spirits and laughed a lot. There was a game of Apples to Apples that broke out, but I am apparently not very good at this game. For those of you who know me, if i'm not good at something I either A.) obcess about it until I am a master or B.) throw a little tiny fit about it and quit. I chose the latter.

Easter was a huge hit. JC and Kristine really know how to throw a party and I am totally psyched for the next gathering at the Bockman household.

Needless to say I was a little tired after a day in the sun, especially after eating copious amounts of pig flesh and drinking more than the prefered daily alotment of delicious wine. Plus it was opening day for the Red Sox (and baseball) so it was time for the big man to get home to relax and watch some sports.

I got home just in time to see Josh Beckett give up back to back solo homers, so needless to say my attentiveness for the game took a nose dive after that. It was a fun game all in all and the sox scratched and clawed their way back, blue collar style. I think its going to be a good season:

First of all the Sox have three #1 starters in their rotation, which is totally sick. Then you basically got 3 or 4 guys in competing for the final 2 starting spots. You can never have too much pitching, especially in today's game where pitchers are always getting hurt. Their lineup is very solid too.

1.) LF -Ellsbury is an awesome leadoff hitter and I love him in left field at Fenway Park. So sick.
2.) 2B -Pedroia is a former AL MVP so we all know what to expect there.
3.) C-Victor Martinez is perenially in the top 3-5 catchers in the game offensively, but his defense is a little suspect.
4.) 1B-Youkilis I think could easily be an MVP contender this year. Homeboy is a sick defensive first basemen, and his patience at the plate forces pitchers to serve it up. He can also play great third base to get Martinez a break behind the plate and bring Variek in.
5.) RF-J.D. Drew just a solid player. Good outfeilder, and has great tools at all facets of the game.
6.) DH-Ortiz could easily be a huge wildcard this year. No one is expecting much out of him, so he has no pressure in my opinion. Plus its a contract year for him, and we all know what players tend to do when their expecting a payday. Assholes.
7.) 3B-Beltre is going to be awesome. First he's a top defender at third base and Fenway is notorious for being a very tough infield. Plus I truely think he could have a Mike Lowell-esque comeback offensively at Fenway park with the Green Monster giving him hits he normally wouldnt get. Lets face it, Beltre was on the juice when hitting 40+ homers a year. I expect a solid 20-25 homers out of him this year with a .286 average. Not bad for a gold glove infielder hitting at the bottom of your lineup!
8.) CF-Cameron I was a fan of this pickup. It was obvious he was going to play center field (3x gold glover and still lightning fast) but hes good for 20+ homers a year given his history. Combine that with some base stealing at the bottom of the lineup and you got a huge addition.
9.) SS-Scutaro love Scooter. awesome defensive SS so I dont care what he does at the plate. Move Cameron over so that when Ellsbury and Pedroia get to the plate they can get him in.

I know the Yankees are defending World Series Champs. And their team is not that different. But the sox got a really gritty hard nosed team that really wants to play. Last night is a great example. I find the Yankees relying on homeruns way too much. The sox, in my opinion, have way more ways to score and more importantly the guts to get the job done.

The last bit of sports news I actually heard this morning. The Philidelphia Eagles traded franchise quarterback (and top ten, possibly top five NFL QB) WITHIN their division to the Washington Redskins. I totally get trading McNabb, but to a rival team? aweful. Dont trade an impact player at ANY position, but especially QB, within your division.

I am very excited that they didnt trade him to the Oakland Raiders too. Partially because my man JC is a big Raiders fan and he was really excited about the possibility of actually having a QB on his favorite team. Sorry JC, you're stuck with Jamarcus Russell. HA! The main reason I'm happy the Raiders didnt get him is because the Patriots have the Raiders 2011 first round pick. A guy like McNabb makes your team instantly better, and I want to make sure the Raiders are as aweful as possible this year so the Pats have a huge first round pick to either take an awesome player or trade down for more picks or even trade for great proven player.

The NFL draft is only a few weeks away. In recent years I've become very excited about the draft. This year is an especially great draft because any college player who is ready for the NFL is going to come out now due to a possible labor dispute at the end of the year. One of the things owners want to do is implement caps on rookie salaries, so kids expecting a big payday are coming out this year, which is possibly the last year they can get that as an NFL rookie. However I'm starting to not follow it as closely as I usually do. Mainly because as you get older, sports become more entertainment than something you live by, but also because the Pats have such a strange drafting system. I NEVER question it because they always do very well, but they never seem to do what the "experts" say. So for the draft this year I may watch, but I'm certainly not going to get my hopes up about certain players or positions that I find important.

Lastly Jason Yudoff and the New Hotness is playing the Bitter End this Friday night at 10 PM! come out and hear some live music.


Thats it for now. Hope you all have a positive day!

Improper Dog Etiquette

The sun in shining, the air is warm, the parks are green and lucious, and the trees are in bloom. This can only mean one thing. Fucking idiots bringing their dogs to restaurants. What the fuck?!?!?! I don't even know where to begin on this.

My main problem with this is a result of a restaurant actually trying to do the right thing. Allow me to explain. When the weather is nice many restaurants have a license to extend their restaurant, with barriers of course, to the sidewalk to provide outdoor seating for it's patrons. Well sometimes people want to bring their dog out to dinner with them and the establishment requires them to leave the dog on the leash AND outside the barrier. Seems logical to not have a dog in a restaurant citing several (and also basic) city health standards (which is another issue all together. 2+2=4 moron). So now not only does the establishment's outdoor seating area take up half the city sidewalk, but we have to worry about your dog. Why, as a human and MUCH more important than cainine, am I forced to negotiate sidewalk congestion (garbage, other people, you fucking DOG) for the comfort of both your dog and you as a selfish person who cant realize that maybe the dog should sit this little excursion out. And eventually another dog is going to walk by and everything is going to have to stop while the dogs say hello to each other and possibly play/fight each other. Then the dog, who you have idiotically tied the leash to the table, your chair, or the barrier is going to take off like a bat out of hell and possibly cause a big commotion.

Are you not at all worried that your dog doesnt like sitting/laying down on concrete for an hour while you eat delicious food (all food is delicious looking to dogs by the way)? Are you not worried about someone in a rush not seeing your dog and tripping over the dog and doing a faceplant into a filthy and very hard sidewalk potentially causing serious injury? Well I bet you would be more worried that your dog was OK and not even the slightest bit concerned about the person.

Dont get me wrong, I like dogs. By all means walk them and take them to the park and let them shit on my sidewalk (please take care of that by the way) and let them play with other dogs. May I please pet your dog? If I am at the park please, let your dog approach me. I actually dont blame the dogs at all. Its not their fault you are a total selfish idiot.

Since its about 96.42% females who do this incredibly rude and selfish act of idiocracy I will leave you with one last thought. Your mothers are not going to forgive you for not bearing them grandchildren by having a dog that you call your kid and take to public places.

I know its harsh, but at least I'm giving it you straight. You are a total selfish person who thinks only of themselves. If you were really thinking about the dog, you would eat your dinner and take to dog for a nice long walk on a beautiful spring day. Not make them sit or lay down on a sidewalk and taunt them with food. Grow up and think of others, including your dog.

recent online poker sessions

My weekly cash game at my friend Andy's house hasnt been happening for me the last few weeks. mainly due to lack of attendence by other regulars and also a busy music schedule for me this month. Over the weekends and weeknights off, I feed the monkey by playing online.

I have done OK online lately. I play on Full Tilt for those of you who are interested. I much prefer to see the people I'm playing with. Online is really tricky for me, especially when the stakes are so low (cuz i dont have thousands to play with, sorry). Also when the stakes are low people are able to make "bad plays" that cause you to go broke when they river you. This seems to happen WAY more often online than in real life. Again probably only because you see so many more hands per hour than you do live. Its obviously the same statistical probability but because things happen so much faster it seems to happen more often.

Cash games are my jam but I want to get more into tournaments. Money has been a little tight lately and you can play an online sit 'n go tournament for like $10-$20 and play for hours. For a 90 person tournament you can stand to win $200+. The top 9 cash. I also like to play the KO tournaments. This means every player has a bounty and if you knock them out you get their bounty. Lately I've been doing a $13 buy-in for a 90 person KO sit 'n go. $10 goes to the prize pool, $2 goes to your bounty, and $1 goes to Full Tilt. Last Sunday I won one of these tournaments and won $288 for the win plus $2 for each person I knocked out. I ended up winning about $326ish. I knocked out a bunch of people, Its great to win and it encouraged me to keep going.

After that I would play one or two a week and I didnt win, but went fairly deep. I'm realizing that tournament play is a lot different. I've been playing poker for only about a year so the whole thing is a little new to me. I find its a little less profitable to make "plays" with weak starting hands, especially at the beginning of a tournament. Mainly because chip stacks are pretty even to start, and you dont want to get short stacked right away forcing you to put all your money in with Ace, 3 offsuit or something like that.

Last night I called it a night early and decided to try and do some damage on Full Tilt. Didnt do well at all. I played 3 tournamets (at once) that I ended up doing pretty well in, but unfortunately not the last 9 in any of them. Two of them I busted out after calling "all-in" bets with the best hand and getting drawn out on (meaning they had "outs" to beat my hand and they caught them), and the other I made a bad read and called All-In when the guy had the nuts (best possible hand given the cards on the board). It was a great play by him/her and I should have stuck to my tight strategy but didnt. I then went on to play heads up cash games (which i dont do often) and got smoked. I was totally on tilt after my three tournament bust outs and I continued to get hammered heads up. I was playing well I just couldn't seem to make hands like 2 pair and straights (which are monsters heads up) hold up. It was amazing. Not saying I didnt make some bad plays, but a few times I had huge hands that got rivered and those of course are the ones that stick out. While I was doing this I also sat down at a full table cash game to try and recoup some of my funds (famous last words right?). I actually did OK.

I sat down at a higher stakes table than usual (again, HORRIBLE idea) and I started getting hammered. It was an aggressive table and I'm not used to the stakes, so I was basically playing with scared money. Playing with scared money is the absolute best way to lose everything. You have to sit down and not care about losing it all. So I sat down with $100 and fairly soon was down to about $65. Then after a while I was in late position and i got dealt KK. the second best starting hand in No Limit Texas Hold 'Em (from now on refered to as NLHE). With hands like KK or QQ or JJ etc I am usually aggressive preflop most of the time. I hate having KK and getting some yahoo with A,6 offsuit getting an Ace on the turn and beating me. So ahead of me someone raises the blinds ($.50/$1. i play this a lot live, but online i'm usually at lower stakes tables.) to $3.50. A pot sized raise. anything from 3 to 5 times the big blind is standard. I have to re-raise in this spot. I want to see where I stand. I make it $8 to go and he calls. The flop came Q,9,5 with 2 clubs. This is a great flop for Kings. I am worried about QQ hitting top set, but A,Q suited is just as likely. I decided to raise his continuation flop bet. A lot of times I would just call and try to trap. but again draws seem to always hit online, and I'm worried he has a flush draw. He called my raise so I'm putting him on a club draw or A,Q (both of which I beat) or top set of Queens which means I'm dead to another King. The turn is a brick. I think it was the 7 of diamonds so there is a straight out there, but 6,8 is an unlikely holding given the pre-flop action. He leads out with a little more than 1/2 pot sized bet (there is probably about $45-$50 in the pot). This is making me lean more towards A,Q or a flush draw. I feel like after watching this guy's betting patters (which is all you really have online, which is why I dont like it) and also concidering relatively standard poker strategy, a set would probably check-raise in this spot. Especially since I had him covered and we were both kinda pot committed. I decide to call. I was fairly certin I had him beat, and I wanted to trap. Basically as long as an Ace or a club didnt come on the river I was calling anything. Although I think a check would scare me enough to POSSIBLY make me check it down. The river was a total brick. Any draw missed. I'm pretty sure it was a deuce or a trey, and DEFINATELY not a club. He shoves for his last 26 or so dollars and I insta-call. I drag the $120 or so pot with KK. He had A,Q of hearts. Cant really blame him. I kinda played the hand like either a moster or a monster-draw. I think my smooth call on the river told him i was drawing for a flush and when it didnt hit he thought he was good. He left cuz I took all his money and he didnt want to rebuy.

So now I'm sitting with about $150. I got it to over $200 when this magical hand happened:

I was in the big blind with A,4 offsuit. Any time the table folded all the way around to the small blind this guy would raise me. I was sick of it. I had an ace and when he raised me (as I KNEW he would do) I re-raised him and he smooth called. Now I'm in trouble. What is he calling me with? did he actually have a monster the time I finally take a stand for my big blind? wouldnt be the first time that happened. Even if I flop an Ace I gotta be either out kicked or the guy has a pocket pair and i have him beat. so its the two of us with $16 in the pot. Flop comes A,A,Q. I actually feel great right now. I think one Ace on the flop would be more scary for me. Its not out of the question that he has an Ace, but pretty unlikely. he leads out with about a $7 bet. less than half the pot. I'm a little suspicious actually. Thats a small bet and im starting to think he has an Ace. And given the preflop action, a BIG ace. I have 2 decisions: 1.) fold, or 2.) big raise. I chose option 2. I had trip Aces and a much bigger stack. I put in a big raise to I think $25 or $30. He smooth calls. I'm pretty much ready to wave the white flag. The turn bricks and he puts in another smallish bet. Its a value bet and I have to call even though I KNOW i'm beat. So far he basically value bet, called my raise on the flop, and value bet again. I'm totally screwed. The river is 7 and he shoves for his last $20 or so. If i call i still have over the $100 I bought in with. I'm certainly getting pot odds to call, but of course hes putting the rest of his money in knowing that I have odds to call. i call and he shows Q,7! he had three pair! (AA, QQ, 77. 3 pair is not actually a hand, but its funny to say). i busted him out with trip Aces. I had big time kicker issues, even though it seemed unlikely he had an ace. I decided that I won $100+ back and I should just cut my tournament and heads up losses. I was still down for the night, but not THAT down with over a $100 win at a full table.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more from JRod at a later date...

reincarnation of my blog

A few friends are blogging now so I miss the 4-6 days that i actually blogged. So here I am starting it up again. I have decided to rework the blog from basically a forum (realized this AFTER the fact) and make it more of what a blog is intended to do. Talk about stuff I want to talk about.

For the reader this is going to mean food, beverage, poker, and music. Also life in general. I will try to limit posts to one topic per blog post, but a lot of times the topics run together. For that I apologize in advance.

"Thanksgiving" - by K Charles Marshall

Well as Thanksgiving is fast approaching, perhaps it is only appropriate for us to take a moment and give thanks to the government that is looking out for us. Indeed, with all the "bad-government" talk these days – I think someone should stand up say thanks to the President and Congress for rushing in and saving the day. Seriously... some people could be morally opposed to throwing bad money at a bad problem – but not in America. Capitalism is so antiquated – why bother letting the markets handle problems when you can intervene and make them do what you tell them! It's a win-win - now if I don't pay my Citi Card on time I can just call up and tell them I'm a majority shareholder so they can suck it! A more cowardly administration might be reluctant to spend so much money bailing out all the important financial gurus of today (damn they're so good at their job) but not here. No, we're pledging approximately $4.6 trillion dollars to the effort. Now when I read that this morning – I was like "hey $4.6 trillion that's not so bad… our national debt is like $11 trillion" but really, $4.6 trillion is a lot of freaking money – another sign of how awesome and fearless our country really is. Check out these numbers from Jim Bianco:

• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion
TOTAL: $3.92 trillion ___________________________________________________________________
(Data courtesy of Bianco Research)

So, on this Thanksgiving, I'm going to say "Thanks to America." Really… Thanks! Lets not be constrained by silly economic principles that use confusing French words like laissez-faire (besides who likes the French anyway), lets not let real capitalist countries like China force us to remain true to that stodgy "invisible hand", lets not worry about our children or grandchildren who will some day have to pay back all this debt (with interest – Carpe Diem right?) No, this Thanksgiving we can say thanks knowing that whatever we do, however much we suck at our jobs, however inferior our products are to the products of those damn foreigners, we can rest assured that America's government has our back and that, my friends, is worth our thanks.