On the South Side

I had a prediction from July 28 of this year that the Electoral would be Bush 278/Kerry 260. Tonight, I make my final prediction. It's just a slight change: Bush 279/Kerry 259. We'll see just how close I get and just how close the election will be very soon. I must add that almost nothing will surprise be concerning the outcome of this election. If Bush were to pull ahead in a few of the big battle-ground states it could look like a blow-out. Likewise, Kerry could win Florida and probably the election along with it. You've heard it said already, I'm sure, that this election turns on voter turn-out. This is certainly true. Traditionally, the folks who don't typically come out to vote would vote Democrat. If these voters do turn out in large numbers, Kerry is likely to win. And, the demographics in general are shifting. In the next two elections, things will look very different than they do now as far as both parties taking voting blocs for granted. If the Repu

Tonight, the curse was lifted. I'm still in a state of stunned disbelief. The Cardinals couldn't even win one single game! Unbelievable! But after the blood-letting of a young man in Boston and then tonight a lunar eclipse, the Babe lifted his curse. There's no other explanation for a team that won 105 games during the regular season to be swept in the World Series. It just doesn't make any sense.

(CNN) -- The mystery surrounding the disappearance of 380 tons of powerful explosives from a storage depot in Iraq has taken a new twist, after a television news crew embedded with the U.S. military during the invasion of Iraq reported that the material could not be found when American troops arrived. read more...

Now it's the Cardinal's turn to ask, "Why not us?" They're down two games to zero as the Series heads to Busch Stadium for game 3 on Tuesday night. By the way, this is likely the last World Series game that Busch Stadium will see. The new Busch Stadium is being built right behind the old one. "But wait," you out-of-towners are thinking, "isn't Highway 40 right behind Busch Stadium?" Yes, it is. And if you're sitting in the top rows of the new ballpark you'll be able to wave to the cars as they drive by. In the picture from the link to the new stadium, that's Hwy 40 in the lower left corner. And another thing, does every single new building in downtown St. Louis have to have a red-brick facade? Don't get me wrong, I love the red-brick homes and old buildings...that's great; but the Edward Jones Dome and now the new Stadium? I think Historical Preservations get hung up on what they perceive as a romantic past. Do they r

Curt Schilling, the great Boston Red Sox pitcher sported a t-shirt with these three words: "Why not us?" And, after winning game six to force a game seven when everyone thought they were out of it, we're all thinking, "no reason, really." Meanwhile the Cardinals now have to win both of the last two games back here in St. Louis. I knew the Astros were going to be trouble. We're keeping our fingers crossed for a Boston/St. Louis World Series. While being interviewed after tonight's game, Curt Schilling said something like, "In game I tried to do it myself and you see how that turned out. [they lost] Tonight, it was God. I had God with me." That reminded me of something that came up during Sunday School last Sunday. One of the guys is thinking of buying a hot-air balloon and take up the sport/hobby seriously. He mentioned that he was going to put in big letters on the balloon: "Jesus Saves." Someone else commented that he though

My fellow Americans; tonight St. Louis had a choice to make. And I ask each and every one of you to remember in these times that not every city is so fortunate to have this choice. But, we did. Great men have gone before us; pioneers of their day striving, sometimes painfully, to win this choice. This land is your land and this land is my land, but one thing for sure is this: you learned something about yourself tonight. By the choice you made, we can see into your soul just a little better than before. How did you choose? Which did you choose? Why did you choose? Did you let your wife touch the remote? No, a women does not have the sensitivity to handle this job. "Why is the coach taking that nice young man out of the game?" she asks. "It's OK," you respond, "we can watch the debate for a few minutes." In St. Louis tonight, I'll bet there weren't too many debates on what to watch. The Cardinals win game one 10 to 7.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The senior adviser to Iraq's Interior Ministry blamed U.S. forces Tuesday for not securing facilities where the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency says equipment that could be used to make nuclear weapons has vanished. [read more]

Well, it was bound to happen. The Houston Astros, with their first ever post-season victory , will come to Busch Stadium Wednesday night for the second round of the playoffs. The Cardinals should be able to beat them. In fact, the Cardinals should be able to beat everybody this year. The first game as I said will be Wednesday night here in St. Louis, the same night as the third and last Presidential Debate. Will anyone be sorry when this campaigning and election is over? Remember my prediction from a while back ? I said Bush would win with 278 electoral votes to Kerry's 260. That's a close race, but it could be even closer. And guess what, it could come down to Florida again! Don't worry though, there's lawyers from both sides already there ready to pounce on it. I know I've been pretty boring lately. I've been watching the Baseball games and the debates and yada yada yada. If the Cardinals win the World Series, I promise I'll be in better mood. O

I was watching the 2nd game of the National League Play-offs tonight when Emily cracked, "Who could like baseball?" And when that didn't work, she tried, "I can't believe you like baseball better than Football." She was trying to get me to turn the channel to E.R. and I wasn't budging. But, that's when it hit me, she wasn't around during the days when I couldn't be separated from a baseball game. She wasn't there during the '80's to hear me yelling out in the middle of a grocery store, "Holy Crap!" as I listened over the headphones to Ozzie Smith steal home. She didn't grow up in a house with Jack Buck's voice drifting up from the radio as her dad watched the game on TV with the sound turned down. Like my father, I loved Baseball; but when the last player's strike hit, I turned it off. Until now. It was in the fall of 1982; I began courting Annette, and the Cardinals won the World Series. I remember the pl

Gordon Cooper , last of the Mercury 7 to lift into space passed away Monday at the age of 77. He was among a group from a day gone by when the space race meant a life or death competition with the U.S.S.R. For those of you who lived through it, (I was just a kid) you may remember him as the "cocky" one. His famous line, immortalized in the book and the movie "The Right Stuff" was, when asked, "who's the best test pilot you've ever met?", he responded, "You're lookin' at him." How fitting that the day after he died, SpaceShipOne wins the $10 Million X Prize by making a 2nd trip into space, thereby (some think) launching space tourism. What's so special about this SpaceShipOne? After all, it flew, just barely, into space and then came right back down. Gordon Cooper did that 40 years ago! Well, again I didn't get picked for a jury this week. They thanked us and sent us home. I don't think they like me; I've rep

We just watched the Rams beat the 49ers on "Sunday Night Football" and the Cardinals start the first round of the play-offs this Tuesday against the Dodgers. (105 wins for the Cards this year!) My apologies to you Californians out there, but there's always next year. If you follow football at all, we're glad to see Kurt Warner doing so well in New York too. The Cardinals have a very good shot at the Worlds Series this year, though they'll have to get by Houston, who just swept three games from us last week on their way to clinching the wild-card spot. This really is an historic team this year and the hitting in the line-up is just awesome. Anything can happen in a 5-game series though. I report for Jury Duty tomorrow to the Civil Courts Building in Downtown St. Louis. The building has been recently renovated much to my dismay. I really loved the old building with its gigantic ceilings and light fixtures left over from a different time. I love to take a Robert H

We watched some of Saturday Night Live tonight; hosting was Ben Affleck. A funny skit posed Affleck as James Carville as he's advising John Kerry on the campaign. In the bit, they both aknowledged that Kerry had won the debate, but Carville warned him, "that's like Kareem Abdul-Jabaar playing one-on-one with Steven Hawking and winning by 2 points! The man can't talk!" And yes, Kerry has gained in some recent polls, but I would give him the same warning. Everybody already knows Bush isn't an eloquent speaker. His modus operandi has always been to let you think he's just a bubba; it'll work to his advantage most times. (I'm not implying that Bush can speak well when he wants to. No, he just can't do it. Is that too much to ask of a President? You tell me. Read this article from Camille Paglia from 2001. ) And, a warning to both candidates: those swing voters who have swayed from Bush to Kerry since the night of the debate will swing and swi