Personal: December 2007 Archives

I'll try to avoid hyperbole here, but let's just say that the NFL's decision to air Saturday night's historic match-up between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants on broadcast TV is a victory for life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, the American Way, freedom, quality entertainment and all things noble and decent.

Oh, yes, and it's also a victory for big government, but let's not try to focus on that part, OK?

As a native New Englander and a Patriots fan, I am thrilled. This Saturday night I have a family party to attend, so I'll need to tape the game and watch it later. Unfortunately, had the game only been on the NFL Network, as originally scheduled, I wouldn't have been able to tape it, as said network is unavailable in my area. And because I can't watch this one live, the sports bar wasn't an option.

But now, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has come to my deliverance, decreeing that the game -- in which the Pats can finish off an undefeated season, while shattering various offensive records along the way -- will be on both NBC and CBS!

Of course, Goodell was nudged by some of my least favorite people in government -- Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Arlen Specter (R-Penn.), who basically threatened the league with a congressional hearing and/or losing its anti-trust exemption if it didn't agree to put this game on broadcast TV. And as a conservative, it's hard to cheer this kind of heavy-handed government intrusion into the private sector, especially when all that's at stake is entertainment.

But well, heck, I'm no libertarian, and this is big-H history in the making! So hooray for big government! Not since Congress wiped out the 55 mph speed limit has it done something that I can specifically point to as directly improving the quality of my life. And this may top even that! Why, this ought to push Congress' approval rating up into the thirties!

So thanks to the senators, and thanks to the commissioner. And one last thing ... Are you ready for some football?!?

I'm back after a week that included:

• The removal of bony impacted wisdom teeth with just novocaine because they couldn't find a vein for the anesthesia/sedation, which apparently indicates that I'm a vampire (just with fewer teeth now)
  
• While I was recovering (roughly) from the oral surgery experience that made "Little Shop of Horrors" look like "Little House on the Prairie," a few days later someone fraudulently used my Visa check card number and drained my bank account (my subsequent investigation has led to a wholesale racket in L.A., and one cop now referring to me as Nancy Drew)
  
• And then a couple of days after that, a guy who claimed his insurance card was "at home" (yes, I got the cops out there) smashed into my precious, nearly new convertible