what's on my mind grapes?

“It’s dripping something on my feet – some kind of red liquid.” I refuse to believe Gary Thorne’s report that Curt Schilling’s sock was not, in fact, bloody in the 2004 playoffs. I simply will not give any credence to the rumor unless it’s substantiated by tests (and if Schilling and the Hall of Fame say no tests, I will totally back them not giving the rumor even that much attention). I think I now see why people hate 9/11 conspiracy theories – if the details of a stunning, inspiring event were falsified in any way, it somehow (albeit completely illogically) undermines the drama of that event, and therefore somehow lessens the event’s significance in their heroes’ (neoconservatives/Red Sox*) ongoing crusade against their greatest foe (the Constitution/the Yankees). To clarify, I now understand the illogic of hating conspiracy theories, but am in no way defending such irrationality. Plus, the truth about one will make a fictional construction out of great sports TV, while the truth about the other may reveal who really killed people at the Pentagon.
“She keeps talking about getting back together with her old friends – ‘the gang,’ as she likes to call them.” While I’m in a conspiracy theory mood: what if Rage Against the Machine is actually a Republican creation designed to drive liberals away from the Democratic party? They broke up just before the 2000 election after protesting the Democratic Convention, but are now back together for a few concert performances (not a full tour, alas). If this leads to a new album in the summer or fall of 2008, and they again attack the centrism of the Democratic Party (a very real problem, admittedly, but one that must be addressed on a local scale rather than nationally), I will seriously start to wonder. Or I’ll be so delirious with joy that I totally forget.
“That’s what we’re about. You don’t remind me of anyone and we love gum.” I’m again going to debase myself by engaging in a discussion of cliched, baseless beliefs that are dumb. Though they will likely impact far too many voters, I still hate them and know they’re bull (I am aware!). Case in point: highlights from the Democratic debate (I don’t get MSNBC for the full thing) underscore that Barack Obama, more than any of the others, looks presidential. You’d really think that my mind wouldn’t allow that of a black man, but it’s just much easier to see him in the Oval Office than it is to visualize it of even Edwards. That said: I am still having a hard time developing strong feelings about any of the candidates. If not for Obama’s smoking (or rather, the fact that he’s so image-conscious that he quit before starting his presidential run, but didn’t care enough to do it before) and the oversalient race identity, I’m sure he’d be the guy to get behind so far, but he is what he is.

* That analogy was the most painful thing I have written in a long while… I think the PSE has sapped my paralleling-of-unrelated-things skills.