The Bungles

Two days ago I made a "bold" prediction about the 2008 Presidential race. Today, since I'm apparently on a prophetic bent, I thought I'd make a decidedly less bold prediction about the 2008 NFL season:

The Bengals are going to be terrible.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a Bengals fan, and I hope against the odds that I'm wrong, but the off season and the pre-season had all of the ear markings of a disaster in the making. Here are the specifics, in my opinion, of this season:

1) The Bengals will go 5-11 this season.
2) Chad Johnson will miss 5 games due to injury. There will be plenty of speculation that he's not really injured.
3) Chris Henry will get suspended for some off the field misdemeanor sometime about week 11 and will be given a lifetime suspension.
4) Carson Palmer will have career highs in sacks and interceptions, and will miss a total of three games due to injury.
5) The defense will be the worst ranked defense in the NFL. Some of that ranking will be unfair and really be the fault of the offense as the offense will have been on the field for such a short amount of time that the defense just found itself exhausted by the end of the game.
6) This will be Marvin Lewis's last season with the Bengals. He will not be fired. He and Mike Brown will decide together that it is time for Lewis to leave, and he'll be glad as hell to get out of town.

That's what I think, anyway.

The good news for the Cincinnati Bengals, I guess, is that anything better than that will be a pleasant surprise.

But don't count on the pleasant surprise. Count on a long season.

Bad Neighbors

Lisa and I have had our share of bad neighbors over the years (We've also had our share of GOOD neighbors, too, but that's a post for another day). Once a neighbor had a dog who the family put out in the morning, then went to work, and didn't bring back in until the family got home from work in the afternoon. The dog barked the entire time they were gone, and when we said something about it, their reply basically came down to "Get used to it." Another neighbor had a house about fifteen feet away from our house, and he set off hundreds of fireworks every Fourth of July. We were picking up the empty casings for weeks afterward.

By far the worst neighbor we've ever had, though, we have right now, and that's the hotel that is behind Vent Haven's property. When we moved into Vent Haven eight years ago the hotel was a Holiday Inn, and it was fairly nice. We even went to a birthday party held there once, and there was a nice indoor pool.

Then in about 2004 the hotel lost its Holiday Inn franchise license. Shorty thereafter it became a Best Western. The quality of the hotel fell a little, but it was still okay.

It was two years ago that the hotel really started to fall apart. It lost its Best Western license for whatever reason and for a long time just had a bright yellow sign up that with black letters said "HOTEL." It's now called "USA HOTELS," but it's really nasty. It advertises a weekly fee, and from what I understand most of the people who stay there are staying there long term, as in weeks and weeks. It's become a really scummy place for criminals and low life people to live.

The city tried to combat the problem by passing an ordinance stating that hotels in Fort Mitchell could only allow guests to stay for a fixed amount of time. The hotel responded by having guests check out on a weekly basis and then check back in again.

It's a really, really terrible hotel now, and I feel sorry for the people who unwittingly stay there. You can actually read the reactions of these people by visiting these links:

Unbelievably Bad Reviews #1

Unbelievably Bad Reviews #2

Unbelievably Bad Reviews #3

With so many bad reviews out there, I'm amazed that anyone would even think about staying at this hotel. And let's get this straight: Most of the glowing reviews are written by the hotel owner to make the place look good.

Anyway, I've heard rumors that the hotel has been sold and that the whole place is going to be torn down and turned into a strip mall. We can only hope.

Turning Point

I'm sure you've heard this (or the opposite viewpoint) from people who are smarter than I am, but I just want to go on record as having said it:

McCain's choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate is going to be looked back on as the turning point of this Presidential race...

...It will be viewed as the point at which McCain blew it!

The minute I read of McCain's choice Friday afternoon, I immediately saw it as a boneheaded choice for several reasons:

1. Palin's lack of experience UNDERMINES McCain's argument that Obama is inexperienced. How can he argue that Obama isn't experienced enough to run for President when Palin has even less experience than Obama and will be second in line if McCain wins?
2. It ENHANCES the argument (never made by Obama but often made by Obama's henchmen and the media) that McCain's age is a factor in the election. After all, if McCain dies now, we're leaving the Presidency in the hands of a complete newcomer to national politics.
3. Let's quit lying to ourselves: McCain chose Palin in part because she's a woman and he's hoping to steal some Clinton supporters. But this plan is going to backfire on him. Sure, in the short term women will get excited by this pick. But when Obama's camp starts hitting back with ads that say something like this--"John McCain thinks that the women of America will vote for a woman, any woman, if that person is on the ticket. Who cares if that woman..." The ad will then list every way that Palin differs from moderate and liberal values, and then come back with, "Does John McCain think women are that stupid? Is he that sexist? Is that how little he thinks of women?"--in the long term I think McCain will find he's alienated a lot of women voters.
4. Another reason McCain chose Palin is because he wants to reinforce his maverick image, to give the idea that he is a change candidate, too. However, Obama's people will come back with ads that say the following: "John McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his vice-presidential candidate because he wants to be about change. But putting an unknown, untested person on the ticket is not change. President Bush believes..." and the ad will then list some issue that Bush and Palin agree on. "Sarah Palin believes that, too." "President Bush wants..." and then the ad will come back with "So does Sarah Palin." The ad will end with "McCain/Palin. Not change at all. Just more of the same."

In 20 years we'll look back on McCain's choice and call it one of the dumbest political moves ever made by a candidate.

That's my prediction, anyway.