I guess I feel like the Tea Baggers this week after Obama was re-elected. With two big upsets of Oregon and Kansas State, the most hated Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the number 1 team in the country on all posts and, most important, the DCS. All ND has to do is beat USC this Saturday and they will be in the national championship game.
With their starting QB injured and USC taking a number of losses this season, ND has to be a prohibitive favorite in that game.
Around here, the ‘domers and wannabes are crowing like they themselves had just done something. The Chicago newspapers are feeding the voracious beast for all things Irish, which is like rubbing it in the face of those of us who hate ND.
If they beat USC, this could leave ND playing Alabama, or even Florida. I think that if ND plays Alabama, the ‘Domers may not end up with a happy finish to their season. One can only hope for the best/worst.

Ever since Nebraska joined the Big Ten (and since Notre Dame entered the ACC in every sport except football), Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany has said that he was happy with the size of the conference, but, once again, he was not being exactly truthful. Eying the lucrative New York and Washington D.C. markets for the Big Ten television network, Delany has convinced the University of Maryland and perhaps Rutgers to join the Conference.
While I have never been much of a Delany supporter, one must admit that he has done his job – filling the coffers of the Big Ten universities. Between the network and the football championship game and basketball conference tournament, the Big Ten has money flowing out of every orifice. But Delany may have struck out on this one. First, Maryland is to Washington D.C. as Purdue is to Chicago. Maryland athletics has been mediocre at best; certainly not a big draw in the nation’s capital. And Rutgers is in New Jersey, but banking on them cracking into the huge New York market is wishful thinking.
On top of that of course, you have long distance road trips between the East Coast and the Midwest, which doesn’t really help in what I think is the university’s main job – educating young people. It’s bad enough that the basketball season starts in November and ends in April (the NCAA Tournament is called “March Madness,” but it often ends in April), and the football season goes on from August to mid-January. When do these young men and women get the time to study? Go to class? Do the things that normal college students do?
Does anyone give a damn? I don’t think Jim Delany does; he only cares that the money is coming in.

Just like the Presidential election from last week, there’s a lot of grumbling about the awarding of the American League Most Valuable Player yesterday to a member of a minority over a white guy. Detroit Tigers’ third baseman Miguel Cabrera won the award over promising rookie Mike Trout of the Anaheim Angels, and that is how is should be.
Trout had an excellent year for a good team, but Cabrera did something that hadn’t happened in 45 years – lead the league in batting average, home runs and runs-batted-in. The last man to do so was Carl Yastrzemski. Triple Crown winners in baseball, like in horse racing don’t come along often. Daryl Van Schouwen’s column in today’s Chicago Sun-Times spells out the numbers; not only did Cabrera do better statistically, he got better down the stretch when his team needed him – leading them to the World Series as Trout “hit the wall” in the last couple of months of the season, hitting for less power, less average and stealing fewer bases in August and September than earlier in the season.
Some people are trying to make Trout into the second coming of Mickey Mantle, which is a terrible burden to place on anyone (besides we all know how Mantle’s life unfolded). I have no doubt that if he is lucky enough to remain injury free, Mike Trout should have one great career ahead of him. If all the chips fall in the right way, it could be a Hall of Fame career. But Miguel Cabrera had a season for the ages, especially considering that he had NO infield hits, and is a right handed hitter, which adds 2-3 steps getting out of the batter’s box which keeps him from beating out cheap hits.
He is from Venezuela, and last season wasn’t even his best or second best seasons statistically in terms of batting average, but he had career years in home runs and RBI, and he did it while returning to third base after playing first for a couple of years. Looking at his .318 career batting average; 321 home runs, and 1,123 RBIs in ten years in the majors, he is a hitting machine; perhaps second only to Albert Pujols, who is also Latin American (from the Dominican Republic).
All this talk about how close the voting was between Trout and Cabrera which was 362 to 281 points (Cabrera got 22 of 28 first place votes) was just talk. It wasn’t that close; nor should it have been.

A few weeks ago, I attended a talk on the MF Global scandal, but I didn’t realize that I was “going in the belly of the beast,” at the Heartland Institute. You may remember that I wrote on the incident here on evilopinion, but I never disclosed the name of the organization. Since then, I have received newsletters and e-mails from the group and ignored them, but last week, while on vacation, I received an e-mail for a speech by a Yaron Brook from the Ayn Rand Institute. That was the last straw, and I had to tell these people to leave me alone. And, of course, I had to share it with you and disclose the name of the organization.

“Could you please remove me from all lists of your organization? I had been ignoring your literature in the hopes that the Institute would get the hint, but that is obviously not the case.
On August 23rd, I attended a talk by (name removed) on the MF Global scandal; I had attended a talk of hers on the same topic some time before and was hoping for further information. I did not put two and two together when I saw where she was speaking, but I had already paid for lunch so I decided to go. She gave less information than her earlier discussion, and, ironically enough, her talks on the MF Global scandal lead an intelligent person to believe that increased supervision and oversight would have hopefully caused MF Global to be discovered more quickly and less money lost; less regulation made the situation worse.
As a confirmed Liberal, I am completely in disagreement with everything your organization stands for and represents. In fact, any discussion from an Ayn Rand “fan club” member would be depressing, sad, and after last week’s election, a complete waste of time. Ms. Rand was one of the most misanthropic people in the history of the world, and her simplistic “me only” philosophy goes against morals, biology and human nature. One can only hope that as more time passes since her death, her philosophy will continue to be repudiated, and eventually forgotten.
The right wing’s interest in this philosophy is nothing more than an attempt to hide ignorance, hatred, and bigotry behind a philosophy of extreme selfishness. ‘You minorities and women, you had your chance to improve, but we’re tired of listening to and helping you, so we’re taking the country back’ (the Tea Party’s slogan). Between that and your organization’s attempts to eliminate life on this planet by denying global change/warming, I can only say that my one interaction with your organization was one too many.”
Sincerely,
Anthony Fernandez

• I hope that everyone is happy that I didn’t jump on the Obama wins – I told you so bandwagon. There’s enough people and organizations making jokes and ridiculing Republicans without me. However, as I posted on Facebook last week, the country has serious problems and liberals don’t have the market cornered on ideas. So, if serious people are willing to talk about making the country better, great, no matter their political or philosophical bent. However, we can only speak on actual facts not fantasy. If you continue to remain in your Faux (Fox) News world, we can’t have an intelligent conversation with you.
• And, by the way, it is now long past time to completely ignore Ann Coulter and Donald Trump. I think being exiled to Elba is fitting, or is it to Napoleonic?
• I personally don’t give a s#$t about the General Petraeus sex scandal other than the national security implications. That there were horny, powerful generals having sex with women who are turned on by power is neither news nor particularly interesting.
• Taylor Swift sold 1.2 million CDs and downloads a couple of weeks ago. What made people want to buy this young woman’s boring pop? Perhaps it’s the front cover of Rolling Stone a few weeks ago? Maybe there was a huge marketing blitz like in my local Walgreens? Whatever it is, I hope it ends soon.
• Only in America – a few months ago, there was a documentary about the black puppeteer who was behind Elmo, the beloved Sesame Street character, and this week, Kevin Clash got his character splashed across the newspapers. A man who had a sexual relationship with Mr. Clash claimed that he was underage at the time, which caused Sesame Street to suspend Clash, which in light of the Mitt Romney “I’d take government funding from PBS” was not the best publicity for the network. A couple of days after the information became public, the man, now 23, retracted the claim. He had told Sesame Workshop in June that he started a relationship with Kevin Clash as a teenager, according to the workshop. The workshop announced on Monday that a thorough investigation found “the allegation of underage conduct to be unsubstantiated.” On Tuesday, a law firm saying it represented the man released a statement saying he “wants it to be known that his sexual relationship with Mr. Clash was an adult consensual relationship. We will have no further comment on the matter,” the statement from Pennsylvania law firm Andreozzi & Associates said. I guess one form of “equality” is for gays to face lies and smears like anyone else. It’s still sad.

Twice, the Florida Marlins hoisted the World Series trophy, then over the off season, traded their best players away and started all over again. Of course, the Marlins were a troubled franchise – bad ballpark, almost daily rain to keep people away; the team was a prime candidate for elimination if Major League Baseball ever contracted.
But things looked better – the Marlins, not the Miami Marlins, got new, stable ownership with some money; the team got a new ballpark that I’ve heard is gorgeous; and they went out and spent that money – first of former White Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen and then signing big free agents like Jose Reyes and Mark Buehrle.
Well, we know how that turned out – Guillen shot off his mouth before the season even started, angering the Cuban community by saying he admired Fidel Castro. Guillen also lost the clubhouse fairly early on, and the Marlins limped to a 69-93 record. By the end of the season, Guillen had pissed off the owner; some players said that they didn’t want to return if Guillen was the manager; and Guillen got fired. But the changes didn’t end there. While the final details are being worked out, the Marlins pulled off a blockbuster, 12-player trade with the Toronto Blue Jays and Marlins that sent All-Stars Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson, and Mark Buehrle to Toronto. The word was that anyone who made big money in Florida was being traded.
The Blue Jays made a big splash and should make the AL East much more interesting. If last year proved anything, you don’t have to spend multiple millions to contend with the Yankees and Red Sox. The Orioles made the playoffs last year while the big money Red Sox were in last place (of course, hiring a crazy man like Bobby Valentine to manage should have been a hint).
So, what happens to the Marlins? For one thing, they won’t have nearly as much controversy without Guillen, and they won’t have the stars they bought either. Do they have good young (see cheap) players in the minors or will they field a Triple-A team like the Cubs seem to be doing? Will anyone come out to the new ballpark with a team of no-names? (Plus, attendance always declines in the second year of a new stadium when the novelty wears off.) Perhaps most important to the sport, will the Marlins continue to be a troubled franchise financially? Or are they just between rebuilding programs and will eventually win another World Series before the Cubs? Time will tell.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film franchise, and the celebrations are everywhere. The Toronto International Film Festival is having a 007 exhibition; numerous books have been published, including new editions of the Ian Fleming originals. And the latest in the series “Skyfall” opens in the US today after already having amassed over $300 million overseas.
My history with 007 goes nearly to the beginning. Of course, I was too young to see Dr. No in 1962 (I was 2-years-old), but in 1965 when Goldfinger came out, the local theater showed the first three films in a row. My poor mother took me and we sat for 6 hours watching the exploits of the British agent. After that, it was a family tradition that someone had to take me to see the new film when it came out. Back in the 1960s, before malls and multiplexes, the Bond films always opened at the Woods Theater in downtown Chicago. It was a huge old theater with a gigantic marquee. (Long gone now of course, it was at the corner of Dearborn and Randolph- the Goodman Theater is there now.) Either my mother or my grandmother would take me downtown on the “L” to the Woods. I loved it.
As you can probably guess, I love lists and Peter Travers, film reviewer for Rolling Stone magazine has his list of favorite Bond films, and so, I felt like it was my turn. As you will see, Mr. Travers didn’t like Pierce Brosnan’s run or Timothy Dalton’s, and is much too kind to Roger Moore’s tenure. (I show his rating with each film.) Mr. Travers’ list includes Skyfall, which I haven’t seen (he ranks it number 5 all time), so I can’t rank it, but he does include Never Say Never Again, not from Eon Productions, but it had Sean Connery in it, so he included it, as will I. So, from worst to first, here’s my list:
23. Moonraker (15 on Travers’ List): the silliest entry in the series. Roger Moore was already too old for the role, plus, he has always been my least favorite Bond. I know the films are in part comedies, by he took the comedy too far. Plus, Moore’s time was hampered by weak villains and this one was no exception. In addition, bringing back Richard Kiel’s Jaws, the 7’2” assassin with the metal teeth and giving him a love interest was much too much.
22. Quantum of Solace (24) the first real sequel, taking up where Casino Royale left off was half baked and underwritten, which is to be expected since they were filming during a writers’ strike. However, I think it suffers on everyone’s list because Casino Royale was so good and expectations were so high.
21. A View To A Kill (17) – Moore was WAY too old by this point, and the film couldn’t be saved by Christopher Walken and Grace Jones as villains.
20. License to Kill (23) – the film that almost killed the series. Timothy Dalton was too serious in the part and Bond was nothing more than a policeman on a vendetta. For all that, it was too long, and came out at the same time as Tim Burton’s Batman, which did the huge business that summer.
19. The Man With the Golden Gun (14) – the only thing that saves this one from being worse is Ian Fleming’s real life cousin, Christopher Lee as the villain. Plus, in the 1970s, the Eon people traded following what was selling for inspiration. The first wave of kung fu films were popular, so out came the kung fu angle. Still, it has one of the Indignant Wife’s favorite scenes: two Asian girls saving Bond’s behind from a martial arts school.
18. Tomorrow Never Dies (21) – one has to give points for being ahead of the curve with a story about a media magnate “making the news” (see Fox), Michele Yeoh (who I do love in other roles) and Brosnan had no chemistry and Jonathan Pryce (whom I also love in other roles) was ill fitted for this. Interesting point – having Teri Hatcher playing an old flame who gets killed, showing that Bond has a heart for some of the women he’s bedded over the years was a nice touch.
17. Octopussy (16) –Bond in a circus in clown makeup. Plus it’s Roger Moore again hamming it up. Maybe this should be lower?
16. The World Is Not Enough (20) – yes, any film with Denise Richards in it as a nuclear scientists is like asking Pauly Shore to play Hamlet, but I liked this one because Robert Carlyle was an effective villain who couldn’t feel pain, and Sophie Marceau was a good villainess, and to my memory, the only woman Bond kills himself on purpose.
15. Live and Let Die (11) – Moore’s debut and, like Golden Gun and Moonraker, which ripped off Star Wars, this one ripped off the black exploitation genre, this time with Bond involved with a drug smuggler and voodoo. Yaphet Kotto made an interesting villain and everyone fell in love with Jane Seymour before she became a medicine woman.
14. The Living Daylights (22) – Mr. Travers didn’t like Timothy Dalton which shows since both of Mr. Dalton’s films are near the bottom of his list. I believe this one, while a mid-level Bond in terms of plot, is better than Mr. Travers says because, as the first film after Moore, Bond needed to be toughened up, more edgy, which Mr. Dalton did well. He just couldn’t do the comedy. Also, since this film came out as the AIDS crisis was beginning, this was the monogamous Bond. Unfortunately, Miriam D’Ado’s character was too mousy and lightweight to be interesting.
13. Diamonds Are Forever (18) – like Mr. Travers, this is the worst of the Sean Connery Bonds. By this time, Connery was in it for the money, had gained a lot of weight, and basically walked his way through it. It should be noted that this film featured the first openly gay couple that I can remember, the two assassins Mr. Kidd (Putter Smith) and Mr. Wint (Bruce Glover).
12. Golden Eye (19) – again, Mr. Travers didn’t like Pierce Brosnan much and he panned his first film, but again, after an eight year hiatus and the fact that most people wanted Brosnan in the role a decade earlier (thwarted by Remington Steele), it was a welcome return. The Sean Bean betrayal was nicely done and I liked the then newcomer Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp, who suffocated men with her thighs.
11. Never Say Never Again (13) – it was good to see Connery back in the role despite the fact that this was not an Eon production. Connery was in better shape than in Diamonds despite the 12 years away, and with a new face in Kim Basinger, attractive Barbara Carrera as SPECTRE assassin Fatima Blush, Klaus Marie Brandauer as a truly sick and sadistic villain, and a black Felix Leiter (007’s CIA counterpart, played by numerous actors over the years), this was a worthy entry in the series (and came out around the same time as Octopussy, as I remember). The biggest drawback was the worst music ever for an action movie composed by Michel Legrande. I know that they couldn’t use the iconic Bond music, but the jazzy score didn’t work.
10. Die Another Day (10) – Brosnan’s best effort, helped by the presence of Halle Berry as Jinx, the only secondary character ever considered for a spin off, and another British agent turned played by Rosamund Pike.
9. For Your Eyes Only (12) – A good Moore entry, it tried to bring the series back after the silly Moonraker, more down to earth plot, a solid villain and an aging Moore turning down the advances of a very young ice skater.
8. The Spy Who Loved Me (8) – a toss-up for the best Roger Moore film in the series, but this film which introduced Jaws, but also featured Barbara Bach (Mrs. Ringo Starr). This one has sensational stunts (the opening skydive off a cliff after a ski chase was fantastic), a decent plot, and good action overall.
7. Dr. No (6) – the one that started it all hasn’t aged well because, made on a small budget, it just looks more of its time than the others. Still, it sets up all of the iconic Bond-isms: the music; “Bond, James Bond” and of course, it has Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder coming out of the sea in that yellow bikini and a knife.
6. Casino Royale (4) – Daniel Craig’s first outing as Bond, refitting the series for the 21st Century. Here you had a young Bond, not a double-O yet, falling in love and paying for it. Plus a great villain played by Mads Mikkelsen as LeChiffe, the money launderer who cries blood. Eva Green was excellent as Vesper Lynd, Bond’s love interest as they explain Bond’s misogynistic ways.
5. You Only Live Twice (7) – Connery’s Bond goes to Japan, which led to my love of Asian women (still in full force with the Indignant Wife, although she is Chinese), and fascination with Asian culture. The first full appearance of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, played by Donald Pleasance, it had space ships, a solid plot for a bond film, and my all time favorite gadget – Little Nelly, the mini gyrocopter that shot other helicopters out of the sky. As a kid, I wanted one; the closest I came is a die cast toy.
4. Goldfinger (1) – I know, this is when 007 turned into an international phenomenon. People lined up around the block; theaters added extra shows. Connery was at his coolest, and of course, you had Gert Frobe as Goldfinger, Harold Sakata as Odd Job, and Honor Blackman as the ever popular Pussy Galore (who was hinted at as being a lesbian in the book). I know everyone loves it, but to me, Bond spends most of his time as a prisoner, which is why I never held it in as high esteem as many others (including Mr. Travers).
3. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (3) – with Connery tired of the role, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman chose model George Lazenby for the film where Bond gets married. Lazenby was considered stiff (he quit after one film – he was not fired as the legend says), but the production team chose great actors to surround Lazenby with. Diana Rigg was the woman who finally got Bond to settle down, and as the former Mrs. Peel from The Avengers, she was tough, beautiful and a feminist icon for the times. Plus, with Telly Savalas taking on the Blofeld role, great scenery, terrific skiing stunts – it was one of the best in the whole series. (It also has one of my favorite jokes by Bond. He sees Ms. Rigg being attacked by a group of thugs who Bond fights off. But Rigg jumps in Bond’s car and drives away. To which Lazenby looks in the camera and says “that never happened to the other fella” – a wink to Connery.)
2. Thunderball (9) – the only Bond film to be nominated for an Academy Award for the underwater cinematography, this is better than Goldfinger in my opinion. Largo is a chilling villain, Donimo was a beautiful girl, and Connery is in fine form. And the underwater stunts are outstanding.
1. From Russia With Love (2) – Connery’s favorite and also Daniel Craig’s. The second in the series is a taut Cold War drama with Robert Shaw as a terrific villain and Lotte Lenya as turned Russian SPECTRE operative Rosa Klebb. The scenes on the train between Connery and Shaw is the best fight in the series.
So, that’s my take on it. As I said, I haven’t seen Skyfall; I will on Sunday and perhaps update the list.