Usually I would take this time to wax on about some politically charged issue or another. But today, I’m thinking I’ll just post something for the sake of silliness. This toon introduces a new take to the issue of which came first, the chicken or the egg.

Would this work well as a birthday card? I think so and I’ll be working toward that end over the next few weeks. But let me know your thoughts. I always love hearing from you.

I can’t resist, and since this blog needs content, I’ll use my forum here to spill out my opinion on the matter.

To start, since Tebow was drafted, I have been scratching my head as to why the Broncos won’t play him.

Before last year started, I put out a facebook post that said, “I can’t see the Broncos winning more than 6 games. Why have a losing season with Orton when you can have a losing season with Tebow and start building for the future?” All across the media and those in the Broncos organization and several die hard Broncos fans gave contradictory predictions. The argument back then was, Orton gives us the best chance to get to the playoffs, we’ll probably be a 12 and 4 team.

Then I watched in horror as the Broncos were decimated and were handed the second worse record in the NFL. Not even the Lions were as bad! The result? One year later, Tim Tebow still hasn’t been allowed to get his NFL feet wet and we are one year behind on building his development. Imagine how much better he would be today, had he started last year at the beginning!

It’s like liberals saying we can’t drill for oil because it won’t solve today’s crisis. True, but what about tomorrow?! Now tomorrow is here and we are regretting having not started a year ago!

Or so I thought. I thought the reason why McDaniels was jettisoned was because we were going to try something different. I thought different looked like Tim Tebow as the starting QB.

“But Kyle Orton has such good numbers!” comes the argument from the anti-Tebow crowd. Okay, let’s take a look at that. Orton had great numbers… in certain areas. But where Orton lacked in performance is what the Broncos needed most: third down conversions and redzone conversions. In essence, on paper, Orton does not finish well.

“Well, you can’t blame Orton for the poor performance of the defense,” comes another argument. Probably not, but by not converting on third downs or in the end zone puts added and unneeded pressure on your defense. You do that all season long, and you’ll wear down even probowl players.

I don’t want to sit and bash Orton. I feel bad for the guy. That’s seriously got to suck to have fans chant your replacement all season. But he’s not the right guy for this job. Denver Broncos football is a scrappy-type football with a lot of pocket movement. It’s the nature of playing at altitude. And currently, it’s our only option with our porous offensive line. Orton is not that type of player. Tebow is. So it confounds me that they wouldn’t put the best fit in with the type of offense we currently are!

John Fox explains he’s in the process to build the type of offense that is better suited for Orton’s skill set and that it should be in place within two to three years. Really? Then why on earth are you keeping Tebow? Trade him to a place where he will excel. I’ll make another prediction. Whichever team puts Tebow as their starter will excel, for a long, long time.

And one more prediction. I don’t care what anybody says, the Broncos are going to suck this year. As last year, I pose the question, why suck with Orton when you can suck with Tebow and start building toward the future?

Now to apply logic to the argument. Here’s what doesn’t make sense to me. Tebow was a first round draft pick. It’s like going out and purchasing a brand new shiny car and immediately garaging it because it’s not “road ready” yet. In the meantime, you spend the next two years driving your old Ford Taurus. You have this great, sexy Audi Quatro sitting in your garage, yet you refuse to drive it! That’s what this whole Tebow issue looks like to me, an outside observer. It doesn’t make any sense.

The other issue that doesn’t make sense is that over 70% of Broncos fans want to see Tebow start. His was the number one jersey sold last year… IN ALL OF NFL! As a business owner, if 70% of my consumers prefer my cherry pie, why on earth would I keep making apple? You will sell more tickets with Tebow. You will sell more merchandise! You will make more money! Does that not matter to you, Mr. Bowlen?

In conclusion, Orton may be a good quarterback. He may even be a great one. But he’s not the right one forDenver. And while I would feel bad benching Orton, we need to start building for the future. Otherwise, please, for Tebow’s sake, let’s trade Tebow to a place where he can be allowed to play and grow into the quarterback he was meant to be and end this controversy, once and for all.

PS Since originally writing this, Orton and the Broncos pulled off a win against the Bengals. My position doesn’t change, however. Tebow has too much raw talent to be sitting on the sideline. If Orton is your man, then trade away Tebow. Otherwise, I’d love to see Tebow start taking the snap for the Denver Broncos.

The word “choice” sure gets thrown around a lot in politics. Liberals accuse conservatives of being anti-choice, yet when it comes to school choice, they are the first ones to shut it down. I’ve never understood their position on this issue, especially considering their stance on abortion. If I follow their logic, it’s a fundamental right to choose to kill your child, but you don’t get the right to choose where they go to school. Huh?

The real shame is, the people who could benefit the most from a school choice program would be the underpriveleged kids, mostly comprised of minorities. The biggest argument coming from the ACLU (because school choice is a violation of civil liberties, thank goodness they are here to save us!) is that, heaven forbid, a parent might “choose” to put his or her kid into a *gasp* Christian school! Because it’s much better to let them drop out and become street thugs than to expose them to Christian education.

And perhaps there are those who believe that last statement. But shouldn’t that decision be up to the parents?

To start, I’m not an economist, so I’m sure I’m not the best to comment on the whole debt ceiling debacle. But it seems to me that the Republicans blew it big time on this one.

In the house, only 50% of the Democrats voted for it, compared to 65% of the Republicans. And 75% of the American public was against the bill that was passed. So when the fallout of this bill is finally realized in November of 2012, it’ll be the Democrats who can then take the high road and say, well, I didn’t vote for it.

What about the balanced budget amendment? Could not the Republicans have fought harder for it? And why on earth would anybody oppose such an amendment? I fail to see how my liberal buddies could object to balancing the federal budget. It’s all about accountability and power. If Congress has to be accountable to the dollars they spend, one, they’ll have less power, and two, there will be less waste. Who could be against that (except for those in power)?

I see the Republicans speak such wonderful things such as “balanced budget,” and “cutting spending,” but at the end of the day, it doesn’t get done. Sure, they were labeled terrorists and hostage takers for wanting certain provisions before raising the debt ceiling. But I didn’t see a whole lot of compromising happening on the Democrat side. And sure, they had an obstructionist Senate that wouldn’t work with them. But the Dems in the Senate would have been just as much to blame, if not more, if something didn’t happen.

In the end, it is always the same. The taxpayer gets hosed. Democrats promise handouts, Republicans promise taxcuts, we don’t really get either.

This is a bi-partisan bashing cartoon, because unfortunately, this can apply to both sides of the aisle.

Side note: There are two things I hate the most, cold calling and spiders. So when I volunteered for a campaign recently and they put me on the phones, it took me a while to become comfortable with the job. I did strike up a number of interesting conversations, however, and it was neat to hear how others in this country felt about certain issues.

A Convenient Excuse

A revisit to an old classic: Going through my toons, I came across this one, posted March, 2010, during the height of the whole Toyota debacle. I commented at the time that I was saddened by the news, having been a Toyota fan. (They aren’t paying me, by the way, although if they are listening…). Only later did we discover that the majority of the cases, when investigated, were simply ‘operator’ error, the driver mistook the gas pedal for the brake. It was one of the few times in my life my gut feelings were actually right about an issue.

(Now if only my gut could do a better job predicting baseball scores…)