I want to be a Race Car Driver when I grow up...

When I was a little boy I was obsessed with becoming a Professional Football Player for the Denver Broncos or the St. Louis Cardinals and sadly that dream never came true.

Later in High School I loved the TV show Movin’ On and wanted to become a Truck Driver. I’ve been there and done that for 30 years.

At middle age I had a dream of becoming a long distant runner and a Police Officer. I did both for as long as I could.

If I were able, my dream today would be to become a professional race car driver. Some may say I’m a little old for that but hey; Paul Newman didn’t start his racing career until he was 48 and was still racing in his 80’s. Recently I watched a documentary that was made about his racing career called “Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman” and it really inspired me. I highly recommend it even if you’re not a race fan. Here’s the movie trailer:

Since I’ve taken up the Forza racing games as a hobby on Xbox I’ve become obsessed with racing. I never was a race fan before, it bored me, especially NASCAR. This is no slam to NASCAR Fans but driving fast in a circle and turning left just doesn’t do it for me. I’d love to see a NASCAR race in person some day but to watch it on TV just doesn’t do it for me.

Instead I like Formula 1, Indy Car Racing, Grand Touring Races, and Rally Racing they all fascinate me but what I’ve come to love is Le Mans Prototype Racing (LMP Racing) the best.

Last night I rented the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans movie and watched it on the Xbox. Below is movie trailer:

It was 83^rd annual race at Le Mans, for over 3 hours plus I was glued to the TV. In my opinion nothing can match the kind of racing that goes on at the Le Mans race track. It puts race car drivers to the ultimate test, with sharp turns and the most awesome straight away in all of racing, the Mulsanne Straight. The Mulsanne Straight can produce speeds of up to 250 MPH in LMP 1 cars.

They have 4 classes of cars at the 24 hours of Le Mans, LMP 1 which are the fastest races cars in the world, then LMP 2, LMPGTE Pro (The GTE stands for Grand Touring Endurance) and lastly the LMPGTE AM which is the amateur division. The cool story from this year’s race was Corvette Racing won the LMPGTE Pro division for the 1^st time in 4 years. The winning Corvette ran a fantastic race.

Living the dream of my bucket list would be racing in one of the LMP 1 race cars. Even if I had the opportunity to go around the Circuit de la Sarthe at Le Mans in the lowest division which is LMPGTE AM class for a couple of laps I’d die a happy man.

Don’t get me wrong I’d love to take a spin around Sebring, Laguna Seca, Sonoma, Silverstone, Indianapolis, Mount Panorama, Spa-Francorchamps, Suzuka, Interlagos, Monza, Nurburging, Yas Marina, Road Atlanta, Road America, Lime Rock, Watkins Glenn and Brands Hatch or any race track for that matter if someone were idiotic enough to loan me a race car but the Circuit de la Sarthe race track at Le Mans would be the ultimate rush.

If money were no object I’d love to be able to go one of the professional race car driving schools and learn to race but that dream is not likely to become reality so I’ll just have to escape into my imaginary world of the Forza 6 racing game on the Xbox. I’ve won some races at Le Mans in the video game world and the upside is I can be involved in the most epic car wreck a human being could ever be subjected to and live to race another day.  

Manning's ship has sailed, time to move on

Having suffering from Plantar Fasciitis back in the late 90's I can confirm the pain can be unbelievable. They have better treatment for it today than back then but in many cases there is no fixing it. In the beginning steroid shots helped me with the pain but eventually they quit working. Surgery in most cases won’t help it either.

Manning if he does have it wasn't showing extremely painful symptoms while he played yesterday. The degree of pain just wasn't there. During warm ups Manning was moving fine. Maybe this has been bothering Manning for a couple weeks but I think this is more of a cover story to spare Manning the indignity of being replaced and possibly benched next week.

Using the injured foot and ribs as an excuse is perfect for Manning. But that's not what he said after game. He admitted the injuries were not the problem; he said just didn't play well and hasn't played well all season with the exception of the Packers game.

If his name were not Peyton Manning he most likely would have been benched early in the season. Manning has thrown 17 INT’s this season which leads the league; while only throwing 9 TD’s. His QB rating is an embarrassing 67.6. He’s been sacked 15 times for a negative 95 yards. Most of Manning pass completions have come in the 5 to 15 yard range; he hasn’t completed many sharp deep throws over 15 yards.

The OL didn’t play well early in the season but they can’t be blamed for Manning’s lack of movement or ability to scramble out of the pocket. Nor can the OL be blamed for having to ditch Kodiak’s running game that requires a QB to take some snaps under Center.

The bottom line is the Manning experiment is over; it failed to produce a Super Bowl win. This was the reason he was bought in, not to win regular season games or the division, to shrink during the playoffs or to set passing records.

I’ve always believed that after Manning came off the field during the Super Bowl in Miami against the Bears that he was done winning Championships. His attitude after the game wasn’t a happy one or being thrilled to win it was more of a subdued reaction. His body language seemed to indicate he was just relieved it was all over, there was no joy there at all. In my opinion at that moment he lost his edge and though he continued to play well that burning desire to win another one just wasn’t there like the other great NFL QB’s. This was the reason I objected to Manning being signed by the Broncos. I had a gut feeling he just wasn’t going to get it done. It's not something I'm happy being right about because the Broncos are my team.

This isn’t to say I don’t respect Manning as a player or person he’s one of the all time greats but the front office, the coaching staff, the players and the fans don’t owe Manning anything.

Win or lose with Brock, the odds are, even with his inexperience, the Broncos have a better chance of finishing the season strong.

The Broncos running game should immediately improve since Oz can play under center, drop back, move in the pocket and use his arm strength to stretch defenses. The offense shouldn't be as predictable as it was with Manning in the shotgun all the time.

Personally I’m not sad about Manning’s demise, I feel like this is a great opportunity for the Broncos to move pass this being his team and more of it being the team’s team. The Broncos are far from being done this season, they have an excellent Defense and talented players on Offense. My hope is the second half story isn’t one were Manning is getting yanked in and out of the lineup. That would be an incredible mistake, there’s no sense in throwing games or a chance to win a Super Bowl because Manning’s fragile ego might get bruised. Bring on Brock!

O'Reilly is an O'Reillian

This may offend people that like Bill O'Reilly so be warned, don't read this if you love the guy. I loath and despise him and this recent exchange with George Will magnifies the reasons why. If you watched the video above there's not much more that needs to be said but let’s expand on this topic.

O'Reilly is not a Republican, he's not a Democrat he's an O'Reillian. In other words O'Reilly is all about O'Reilly. 

He's all about the mass marketing of his show, his books and generating fame and wealth for himself. He pretends to be the only fair and balanced arbitrator "that's looking out for you." The truth is the only person he's looking for out is himself.

He always projects himself as the smartest guy in the room claiming only he knows the real stories happening in the political beltway and can dissect them for us common folk.

He's smug, rude, impatient, always talks over his guests, and dismisses the women he interviews on his show as less knowledgeable and worst of all he never misses a moment to rip down the Conservative wing of the Republican Party.

I look forward to the day when his show loses its influence on the older generation of establishment Republicans. He's not really looking out for them or the Conservatives. This latest book on Reagan is another example of it.

I understand that if not for Fox News the Republicans would not have a voice in the nationally televised media. The problem is Fox and Fox's lead broadcasters all tend to be left of center Republicans and honestly more Democratic in their views than Republican or Conservative. 

Hannity is the one exception but O'Reilly, Shepard Smith, Greta Van Susteren, Megyn Kelly, Chris Wallace, Brit Hume and Brett Baier all tend to lean to the left of the Republican political spectrum.

I wish people who follow O'Reilly's show and the others understood that we don't need or want to go left. We need to go right because we've seen what an epic failure placating with the left side of the Republican Party has done for us. 

The current group in DC has bent over backwards to placate because they believe the best strategy is to not make waves and wait until after the next election to make change.

Its baloney, what should of happened is after the Republicans got control of the House in 2012 they should have been way more forceful in the budget battle. They caved then, and then they caved again when they got the majority in the Senate. They've caved on Obamacare, the immigration issue, the energy issue, climate change, education and foreign policy (Iran deal) you name it they've taking the path of least resistance.

The bottom line is we as Republicans need to demand and vote for the most Conservative candidates possibly. We need to elect the most Conservative leaders in the House and Senate leadership positions. 

We need to stop freaking apologizing for doing what's right for the country. You don't see Obama and the Liberal Democrats apologizing for running roughshod over us last 7 years do you? And guess what? They won't stop; Hillary and Sanders want to take big centralized government to a whole new level. 

So turning this back to O'Reilly and the news media, we can not let a few mouth pieces that don't hold a real Conservative view dictate the terms of our final surrender.

Stop watching O'Reilly, turn your radio on or listen to Mark Levin on your computer. He's the best Conservative in all the media period. Get your news from websites like freerepublic.com or other Conservative websites that spell it out with a Conservative spin. 

Stop believing that Fox News and their prime time Anchors can save the Republican Party. They won't, if you want to be a truly informed Conservative look elsewhere for news and opinion. We don't have the luxury of losing another Presidential election or losing the House or Senate again.

Starting a 3rd party will fail so we have to do it within the Republican Party. That means finding and electing the most Conservative people we can find and stop electing the establishment Republicans.

It may take several elections to get there but it's the only answer to get us back to the right. And when I say right I mean right.