Obummer’s got his work cut out for him

He’s got two years to start a war or do something that might make him appear presidential but right now, the polls are dreadful.

38 percent support the goals of the Tea Party movement; 27 percent do not. In a slew of areas (the Middle East, Afghanistan, energy policy, the environment, the economy, job security, health-care coverage, education, entitlement programs, the financial system, and Wall Street) the public thinks we are worse off than two years ago. There is no area in which the public thinks things have improved. They disapprove of Obama’s performance on Iraq, the economy (39 percent strongly so), immigration (41 percent strongly so), the environment, terrorism, gay rights, social security, the deficit (57 percent strongly or somewhat), Afghanistan, and taxes. On education they approve, but within the margin of error. Overall 44 percent approve of his performance and 49 percent do not.

With the exception of education and health care, the areas respondents are most concerned about (the economy, terrorism, social security, the budget deficit, and taxes) are ones on which Obama is doing very poorly and which most respondents believe have gotten worse in the last two years.

Finally, with regard to personal qualities, some of the results are stunning. Only 14 percent describe Obama as experienced, 47 percent don’t. (After 18 months in office, that is.) 31 percent  do not describe him as effective, only 25 percent do. 35 percent would not describe him as unifying, only 18 percent would. Although within the margin of error, more would notdescribe him as patriotic or in touch.

Stamford court house gets dangerous

Judge Tierney returning from lunch

Superior Court judge and Greenwich resident Kevin Tierney smacks a marshall with his car, keeps going. In fact, Judge Tierney is a most admirable person, a man I respect very, very much, and I’m sure he had no idea he’d struck the lady (her injuries were negligible) but these stories are still fun.

According to the police report, the marshal, Cynthia Miranda, 32, was struck by Tierney’s car shortly after 3 p.m. June 9 as he was driving into the courthouse parking area on Hoyt Street.

You’d think he should have at least given her a Miranda warning.

Believe it or not, there are people who care passionately about soccer

Or so this article would have us believe.

Next year, a Cadillac. Manchester United fan Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi is the ruler of Africa's richest tribe.

Queen Elizabeth expresses disappointment with England's goalkeeper.

Top down, command economy. It’s never worked, will never work, but our legislators love it

Connecticut mandates bio-diesel to be added to home fuel, increasing from 2% to 20% in the near future, all funded by taxpayers because it makes no economic sense. Liberals think that heaven is just a few new laws away. Conservatives have their doubts.

June 28th – show time!

Do these hands make me look fat?

Thanks to Walt, I learn that the Stephanie Seymour – Peter Pervert Brant divorce case has been transferred back to Stamford (where it belonged all the time) and the next round is scheduled for Monday, June 28th. Such fun! Such gossip! I’m not sure whether I’ll cover it, but it should be entertaining.

This is pretty cool

Daniel Nava swinging for the fences

Red Sox rookie Daniel Nava, a 27-year-old toiler in the minor leagues was called up today from Pawtucket and on his first pitch in the majors, hit a grand slam. If this man does nothing else in his baseball career, he’ll still have such a sweet memory.

I have a friend who spent ten years in professional baseball, almost all of it in the minor leagues except for a couple of call-ups to fill in for injured players. He hit a home run in his first at bat and, a decade on, now a successful businessman, he says that hit made the whole effort worthwhile. Nava’s got something even better.

Apparently in metric football, this counts as a win (for us)

England’s goalkeeper’s blunder leads to 1-1 tie with USA. Team representatives are presently engaged in determining a final winner.

Abby Sunderland rescued

She’s safely aboard a French fishing vessel. Aptly named “Il De La Reunion”. After reading about her and her voyage, I think it was a foolhardy venture – parents are supposed to suppress their kids’ dumbest ideas, not facilitate them – but all’s well that ends well, yadayadyada.

UPDATE: My favorite cousin writes : “I’m glad the kid’s ok, but I wish they had found her making her way slowly under a jury rigged sail. I guess I’m just old fashioned.”

I read that she lost her keel as well as her mast, but I’m not sure that’s accurate – keel boats tend to capsize without their lead (see, eg., Drum and its Fastnet experience). If Abby lost her keel then, fair dinkum, a jury rig wouldn’t do much good. But otherwise, yeah, get out those bolt cutters girl, ditch the mast and get something up using a spinnaker pole or something.

But if you look to the right side of this blog you’ll find an article I wrote about losing our rudder 200 miles offshore – we had some brilliant people (no, not me, obviously – I was rail meat)  on board and still couldn’t get a fin-keeled Swan to go to weather and eventually called for a tow. So I’d give a sixteen-year-old a break.

Is Greenwich ready for bestiality?

Oh Goody: St. Catharine’s Church is hosting a production of “The Runaway Slave”.

She was referring to indecent acts committed by Esteban Montejo, the real-life slave of the title, who lived alone in the forest for years after escaping the Cuban sugar plantation where he was born in 1860. Bestiality aside, a Catholic church in this leafy hedge-fund homeland might seem an unlikely place to stage a rare revival of Mr. Henze’s anti-priesthood, anti-American, anti-capitalist ode, the major event of this year’s Greenwich Music Festival.

But the enthusiastic reception awarded Ted Huffman’s excellent new production of the work demonstrated the open-minded attitude and artistic freedom often denied Mr. Henze, 83 — still an active composer and member of the Communist Party in Italy, where he has lived for more than 50 years. His left-wing politics and homosexuality made life difficult in Germany, his native country. His music also initially received a hostile welcome, deemed too expressive for the postwar avant-garde but too thorny for general consumption.

Whatever – I won’t be attending.