Brady.

Shocker. Tom Brady, the inventor of American football, will be playing in the Conference Championship game again.
I was really rooting for the Jags tonight. Not because I really dislike Brady, but because I am sick of hearing countless sports pundits beg Brady to make love to their wives.

But really, in the modern watered-down sense of the word, Tom Brady is a hero. Dogmatically speaking, it must be incredibly difficult to walk, much less play professional football, in Tom Brady's condition. Imagine walking around every day with dozens of sports commentators so far up your ass.

As I consider Jacksonville's loss, I am thinking maybe I do hate Tom Brady. Maybe I, like Americans all over America, hate winners. Let us face the truth. Americans love losers and winners are looked at with suspicion.

Now, let's not attack the Patriots. Let us congratulate them for being the first team in NFL history to win every game in the same season they were caught cheating.

Still, why do people watch American Idol? Is it because they love mid-rate singing? Because they find Ryan Seacrest riveting? Because they love hearing the English degrade Americans? Or, is it because they love to see failures. The first half of the season is spent showing delusional people who suck at singing sing their hearts out. And, we laugh. We laugh because we root for the loser. Rather than root for those who spent the time earning the right to win, rather than rooting for those who innovate we root for those who choose not to be competitive. And so, as an American I root against the Patriots.

After all, that is why American's love to tax the wealthy, right? I mean, they were innovative, they created, and they earned the right to win. Rather than point to their success as an example for our children, we assume that they must have screwed someone to get where they are. They must have abused the environment and given nothing back to society. All because we hate those who are willing to work harder than we are. Go losers!

So, I may be another bitter American who hates the Patriots because they win. Well, that and the memory of the Raiders being screwed out of a trip to the big game by a bad call in a game against the Pats (nah, I have been able to let that go. Sort of. Kind of. Not at all.).

Mr. Obama.

As much as it pains me to say it, I see why so many people like Barack Obama. After reading his website I wasn't too impressed. However, after hearing his speach from New Hampshire his popularity is no longer a mystery to me.

I know. I know. The dogmatist came late to this party, but I loved his speaking style. He is like Reagan meets King meets Kennedy. Ask not what Obama can do for you, but who bought this microphone.

Below please find a few quotations from his New Hampshire victory speech and the dogmatist's take on each one.

On education
Obama: "We can stop sending our children to schools with corridors of shame and start putting them on a pathway to success."
Dogmatist: Ok, a little cheesy to start off, but I was mostly upset. My school only has breezeways of shame.

Still on education
Obama: "We can stop talking about how great teachers are and start rewarding them for their greatness by giving them more pay and more support."
Dogmatist: I like this one. However, if you go to his website his answer for education is No Child Left Behind with more money. I suppose the best way to cure a failing bureaucracy is to give it more money. Despite his talk of change Obama shows his traditional Democrat tendencies.

On energy independence
Obama: "We can harness the ingenuity of farmers and scientists, citizens and entrepreneurs to free this nation from the tyranny of oil and save our planet from a point of no return."
Dogmatist: Can't you hear Ronald Reagan all over that? Replace 'tyranny of oil' with 'red menace' and it is almost a direct quote.

On campaigning and terrorism (one and the same?)
Obama: "And we will never use 9/11 as a way to scare up votes, because it is not a tactic to win an election. It is a challenge that should unite America and the world against the common threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear weapons, climate change and poverty, genocide and disease."
Dogmatist: That wasn't to scare up votes? Still, well said.

On hope
Obama: "We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."
Dogmatist: Here you really feel the preacher in Obama coming out. Passionate, inspiring, flag waiving. I guess George Bush only gets stoned by the villagers for one of those.

On the question, "Can we?"
Obama: "And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can."
Dogmatist: From every mountain, in every valley, from hill to dale and other words no one uses anymore, from space station to clean burning coal mine, from immigrant laborer to Fortune 500 CEO (well, maybe not), from the corridors of shame in the schools to the corridors of shame in Washington D.C., from the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream Waters, Yes we can, Yes We Can, YES WE CAN!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Wkahd;lfjas;dfja;oshdf;has;ldkjf;asdf;lkj. Typing in tounges. The left won't like that.

All in all, a powerful old-school speech from a new-school politician running on an old-school premise of change.




Picture taken from: the United States Senate