Our dumb president

I'm starting to think our president, Mr. George W. Bush, may really be dumb. You know, not intelligent. I've speculated this for a while (about 7 years now) but it has really hit home since his no-bones-about-it stance on vetoing the Senate's vote to implement a plan to exit Iraq has come clear. I can't help but think, he really doesn't get it.

This is particularly troublesome considering the recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that shows 66 percent of Americans say the country is going in the wrong direction. Sixty-six percent! In addition, 49 percent of those polled say conditions in Iraq are worse than they were 6 months ago, 37 percent say they are the same and only 12 percent say they are better. When asked if victory was possible, only 36 percent said yes, and just 37 percent agree with the President's stance on staying put in Iraq. Is Bush seeing these numbers? I have to believe he's not, considering his threat to veto the pending Senate vote.

There's no doubt in my mind that Bush is arrogant, bull-headed, dogmatic and a flat-out jerk. I'm now convinced we can add "dumb" to his growing list of black marks, too ... jw

John McCain

It's certainly no surprise that John McCain has announced his candidacy for president. I'm extremely interested to see how his campaign will evolve and what cards he plays. I once was a McCain fan, but his support of the president's flawed take on Iraq is extremely disappointing, and reason enough for me to abandon my support, however minimal it may have been in the first place. I expect is blatant support for the war will be his Achilles heel and bring him down. I hope so. On a related note, I very much enjoyed his exchange with John Stewart on the April 25 edition of the Daily Show. The crowd was clearly opposed to McCain's support for the war, and when he said, "I know who's side their on," Stewart responded, "They're on America's side; they're patriots." Abso-frickin'-lutely!

My experience with Wii

I’ve never been a big fan of video games. While I grew up playing Pac-Man on Atari and Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo, for the most I think they’re a big waste of time. However, I recently had an opportunity to play Nintendo’s latest gaming system, Wii, and had a blast. Wii’s trademark is its wireless controls, which allow players to control the action on the screen by movement. My experience was limited only to the sports games that are included with the system (boxing, baseball, golf, bowling and tennis), but playing them was a freakin’ blast. And a workout, too! I was actually sore the next day, which has more to do with how out of shape I am than the workout the game offers. Still, Wii can be viewed as a promotion of exercise, which, considering how lazy we are is a good thing. I’m probably not going to go out and drop $300 on a Wii, but will play it every chance I get. Now, if there was just something we could do about the horribly violent video games available to kids of all ages … jw

Ella Ruth, born to Jeremy and Stacey Waltner Sept. 17, 2006, is a star. I hope one day she realizes just how much she is loved. I wish all children could be so lucky ... jw

Twins: Early season observations

It makes sense, I suppose, that my very first Five Horizons writing is a word about the Minnesota Twins. I love the Twins. They're a small market team with top-notch upper level management and have a farm system that is considered a model in the Majors. The Twins have a core of budding stars that make the Minneapolis-based team one of the most exciting around, even though the East Coast bias remains strong in the national media. The 2007 season is but a few weeks old but we've gotten a sense of how the Twins could follow up their 2006 Central Division championship. Looks promising. Justin Morneau is playing like a reigning MVP, Jo Mauer is hitting like a reigning batting champ and Johan Santana is pitching like a defending Cy Young winner. The rest of our pitching and hitting is a bit shaky early (some of it, anyway), but as of April 21 we were a game up on Detroit for first place in the Central. That's on OK place to be. Go Twins! ... jw NOTE: The accompanying photo was taken by Jeremy Waltner during the 2006 season.