Absolutely, Unbelievbaly TRUE Political News!!!!

I'm not kidding. No satire this time. These U.S. political news stories from this week are 100 percent TRUE!

1. Arab tourists spend $12 Billion a year traveling abroad. Got that? $12 BILLION! These aren't militant Islamic extremists I'm talking about. These are law abiding, rank and file citizens just like you and me, except they spend a LOT of money traveling abroad. This week, Dubai hosted a foreign travel tourism convention where representatives from other countries were able to show off how wonderful it is to travel to their countries. Instead of sending promoters for the United States, U.S. officials sent two guys from the Homeland Security office who were there to explain to potential visitors how they'd be fingerprinted and tracked upon their entrance into the United States! The stupidity of discrimination and prejudice is ASTOUNDING.

2. At Thursday night's Republican presidential debate, Tommy Thompson actually said employers should be allowed to discriminate against workers who were gay. One wonders if he would also allow employers to discriminate against workers who were straight, but adulterers. Would he have employment applications exploring one's sexual preferences and conduct, or perhaps simply upside-down pink triangle patches so we can identify those people at a glance? I'm sure the evangelically-preferred party would have no problem with that considering that John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Newt Gingrich have a history of eight divorces between them, mistresses living with them in the house along with their minor children (who have now become of age and disowned the father, and vice versa), an ex-wife first finding about their impending divorce when seeing it announced on television, an ex-wife having to sign divorce papers while dying of cancer in her hospital bed, and even a marriage to a cousin!

3. Despite a sitting, two-term president from the same party, the republican candidates went to great extremes not to mention George W. Bush's name. In 90 minutes, the candidates mentioned the president's name only once. Sen. Sam Brownback said,"I'd leave that up to President Bush" when asked about pardoning Dick Cheney's senior deputy Scooter Libby who was found guilty on four counts of obstructing justice and lying while trying to cover up for the outing of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame thus destroying years of covert CIA work in order to prevent the American people from knowing that the republicans were misleading them about any threat from Iraq in the run-up to the invasion. On the other hand, they mentioned the late Ronald Reagan's name an astounding 19 times!

4. Three republican candidates actually admitted to not believing in evolution - Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee, and Tom Tancredo. I wonder if they believe in that whole "Earth revolves around the Sun" theory.

And, like, my sneak preview predicted, the republicans had a lot of hate-speach against Mexicans, gays, women, etc., although maybe not in the exact words I predicted. Still, the evidence of Alzheimer's Disease among the candidates was very Reaganesque.

Bravery and Baseball

It's strange how two of my greatest heroes in life come from the world of baseball. Today celebrates the life of one of those great men - Jackie Robinson.

Jackie Robinson was a Hall of Fame second baseman for the Dodgers, then in Brooklyn, who began his career 60 years ago today, April 15, 1947.

The story goes that when Dodgers owner Branch Rickey signed Jackie, he asked him what he would do if a racist white man threatened him with violence and called him every disgusting name he could think of.

Robinson asked Rickey if he was wondering whether or not the young player had the guts to fight back. Rickey said, "No, I'm wondering whether or not you have the guts NOT to fight back."

Robinson suffered quietly through untold abuse. When the team traveled to some southern cities, he couldn't stay at the team hotel or eat with the other players at the same restaurants.

Some southern racists on other teams refused to play against Jackie, and when forced to, tried to injure Robinson on purpose.

Robinson even had ignorant southern racists on his own team such as OF Dixie Walker who refused to acknowledge his black teammate.

Some people think Robinson was selected to be the first black baseball player because he was the greatest player in the Negro Leagues, but that's not true.

Robinson was very talented, but hadn't completely honed his skills. Rickey wanted a player who would have to earn his way up through the baseball minor league system like any other player.

After spending time with the Dodgers minor league team in Montreal, Robinson joined the big league club in Brooklyn. Robinson earned the 1947 Rookie of the Year award.

After baseball, Robinson lived his life as a speaker, a writer, and an activist; but always maintained the quiet dignity and pride he projected in his playing days.

I mentioned at the top that I have two great heroes in baseball. The other is Lou Gehrig, a man who maintained a similar dignity and pride when struggling in another battle - the battle for his still young life as a crippling disease ended it.

While Lou Gehrig showed us how to handle death, Jackie Robinson showed us how to live life.

Robinson made the Baseball Hall of Fame by his achievments on the baseball diamond, but he makes the Hall of Fame for humanity by his achievments everywhere else.