Chris's Musings

I have been watching the news with baited breath... as negotiations occur in dark rooms in which the fate of many will be decided... and the clock is ticking to an eventual doomsday deadline. Yes, my friends. I'm talking about the July 31st baseball trade deadline. I am, sort of, watching the market for who may be traded to my current hometown team, who has been somewhat crippled when Brian McCann went on the DL just recently.  With the loss of his bat, the Braves really need to pick up some offense, especially against left handed pitching (where they were recently quoted as batting a measly .227 as of about a week ago). But more so, I'm nervous and watching the biggest seller on the market.  After all, I am from  Houston and I am a Houston Astros fan. And yes, I know.... They really stink.  Actually, that may be too kind. That's why we are the biggest seller now, because we own the most marketable player that is being talked about as a trade target. ...

Some of you know that I organize a once a month dinner club for friends and friends of friends to explore new restaurants in the city, meet new people, and have interesting conversation.  I am somewhat of a foodie and started organizing these dinners a few years ago because I wanted to go out to nice dinners but was on a dating fast at the time (and usually you go to restaurants like these on dates), so why not organize a "dinner club?" For this summer, I have themed my picks as the "Summer of Celebrity" and am picking restaurants that are owned by well-known celebrities or have been featured on a national program.  For whatever reason, this month I felt lazy (I say this, because I usually never choose restaurants that are part of national chains) and picked Ted's Montana Grill as it is owned by one of Atlanta's most famous (or infamous) celebrities, media mogul Ted Turner.  I organized for last Thursday night.   On the way from my office to the restauran...

As soon as the election of 2010 started, you had to know this was going to happen... The national debt, which was already bad, is starting to get out of control.  The Obama/Pelosi "stimulus" package did nothing more than to throw away several billion dollars in funds and produced *ahem* higher unemployment (well, not really, but it didn't perform as promised and unemployment is conservatively at 9.2% today, double what it was during the heyday of the Bush administration). The "Obamacare" health care overhaul was passed.  This was a very bad piece of legislation by most people's counts and the greatest government encroachment on the US healthcare system in our history.  Applauded by people on the Left, demonized by people on the Right, and controversial all around. And a very vocal group of average citizens, empowered by fear over the economy and the government's seemingly unbridled approach to spending and power grabs over the private sector, rose ...