Mishmash Musings

I don’t care all that much about politics, so I haven’t been watching the RNC, just getting highlights from the news and the Internet. Everyone’s buzzing today about Sarah Palin’s speech at the RNC, with most analysts and experts saying she acquitted herself rather well and did what she had to do in terms of combating some of the negative press already swirling around her selection as the VP candidate.

Anyway, because of all this buzz, I decided to watch the entire Sarah Palin speech video on YouTube. She actually was pretty good, maybe not the same kind of orator that Obama is, but good in her own way. However, I don’t think that’s going to be enough to stop the media hounds from doing their thing, going after her family, her past, and her record (all fair game for a national candidate, IMO). Still, maybe there’s a lot more to Palin than I initially thought….

Here’s part one of the Sarah Palin speech video. For the rest, just go to YouTube!

What is it about NFL players that seems to attract nothing but trouble? At about 2:45 local time this morning, offensive tackle Richard Collier of the Jacksonville Jaguars was “critically wounded” after being shot while waiting for two women outside an apartment.

Details of the shooting are still sketchy, but apparently Collier and a former Jaguars teammate met these women at a nightclub and were waiting for them to come back out from their apartment when a gunman sprayed bullets at Collier’s Escalade. Collier was hit several times, but so far reports have not specified where he was hit. All of the reports, however, say that his injuries are critical.

Collier’s passenger was unhurt.

Collier underwent surgery at Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, and remains in stable but critical condition according to a Jaguars press release. The medical center has declined to provide further updates about Collier’s health, which could be the result of a request from family members.

Because of the lack of details, the online community is left speculating about what might have happened. Some people think Collier was set up to be robbed by the two women after they found out he was an NFL player or whatever, while others think this was just a random event.

To me, it doesn’t seem all that random, especially since an early report indicated that the shooting occurred in an upper middle-class neighborhood. It’s not like Collier was hanging out in a shady or dangerous area of town where things like this happen all the time.

At any rate, I hope Collier pulls through this one. I can’t believe the number of NFL players who get into trouble off the field. It definitely seems to be a higher proportion than in other sports. Maybe it’s because the actual NFL season is shorter than other sports, giving the players more free time to mess around.

I was at the video store today when I saw the DVD cover for a film called The Machinist. I’d never heard of it before, but the image on the cover was so disturbing that I had to pick it up. It showed this positively SKELETAL man on the front in some kind of weird pose, making me think the movie was about torture or something.

Imagine my surprise when I read the info and learned that the guy on the cover was Christian Bale!! He legitimately lost a whopping 62 pounds for the role, which is amazing for a 180-pound guy. Apparently, Bale didn’t even need to use Leptitrex or any other supplements. He just basically starved himself by eating only an apple or a can of tuna each day. Gross!

Well, I can’t even bring myself to post a picture of The Machinist because the image makes me want to vomit. Look it up for yourself if you want to see Bale looking like a POW.

I just read that Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter is 5 months pregnant. The girl is unmarried and still in high school (presumably). Palin insists that her daughter and the baby’s father are going to keep the baby and get married, but even so, that hardly seems like something the conservatives want hanging over their head during the campaign.

The thing I don’t get is that McCain’s people had to have uncovered this during the vetting process, which means they were perfectly willing to roll the dice on Palin despite her inexperience, her unknown name, and her pregnant teenage daughter. Wow, how desperate are things in the McCain camp anyway?

According to the article I read, the Palins decided to come forward with news of their daughter’s pregnancy to dispel online rumors that their 5-month-old son was actually the daughter’s. Yep, there are people out there who believe that Palin faked her pregnancy to cover up for her daughter.

Wait, wasn’t this an entire storyline last year on Desperate Housewives? I can’t believe a national campaign would even bother taking the time to address this stupid rumor.

Either way, it doesn’t seem like the Palin selection was very smart. She might bring in a few extra voters for McCain, but something tells me he would have done much better going with a traditional selection.