The Mission

It's a warm windy night in Pittsburgh and the Steelers are away in Cleveland.

It's the second quarter and I'm lost in a labyrinth of pensiveness...unable to concentrate while the Steelers make an incredible first down...go Santonio. Woo Hoo. The unpredictable stuttering of the radio has created an all too fragmented experience for yours truly. Winds from Ike seem to be interrupting my game. "You Fuckers!!" I yell into the maelstrom, "Not only have you compromised their passing game, but you've denied me my civil right to a free press!" I hate fascist hurricanes.

Strange that Pittsburgh and Cleveland have similar weather on a pivotal game such as this, 2-0 would be a hell of a start! Hines Ward just put us on the board. "Take that you miserable son-of-a-bitch tropical depression!! Your mother, Hannah, was a two-bit whore!" Whoa, he's quiet now.

I enjoy listening to the radio coverage of football, sometimes I think sports reporting is the only truly objective journalism. Not that Tunch and Billy are impartial, but they are at least scholarly enough to appreciate good play when they see it despite their allegiances. It's easy enough to be honest (I don't like "truthful", too many definitions) with something that matters very little to life and death issues -- such as sports. It's difficult to be honest with something that matters a great deal to life and death issues...like politics.

Granted we are all, to some degree, creatures of interest. Our interests certainly do inform our opinions. I am a big believer that complete objectivity is a fantasy. With this in mind, my best bet is to lay my interests out on the table and I suggest that if my interests match your interests than our opinions should be similar. If one of our opinions is right and one is wrong yet our interests match up, than one of us has opinions that are inconsistent with our interests. It is under such conditions that opinions must change -- otherwise our rationality is rightfully brought into question.

I hereby open myself to that scrutiny.