The death of this man would have remained unknown to me had it not been for the Courier Mail obituaries yesterday. With the absolute ridiculous hype about the death of a so called hero, McNamara’s death has gone almost unnoticed.

I won’t go through every moment of his life but he was absolutely hated by a lot of people for a lot of years as a major supporter of the Vietnam war. I am sure like all of us he is guilty of making mistakes, however my belief is that he may have been a little over blamed in the role he is perceived to have played in mongering the Vietnam war.

He was been portrayed in a few movies; JFK and 13 Days (both I recommend) to name a few but it was his feature in the 2003 documentary ‘Fog Of War’ that most interested me. A movie I have watched a number of times and recommend it to anyone who has any interest on how the world works and what forces drive some of the decisions we all live with. A meeting with former Vietnamese leaders years after the war indicated just how unfortunate some of these events were. Misunderstandings were at the absolute core and unfortunately resulted in much suffering on both sides.

Obviously a highly intelligent individual who in the end was humble enough to admit that he did the best he could with the information he had at the time.

There is no key to knowledge of this world
There is just life experience…
Any experience you can gather from the history of others…
Careful consideration…
Common sense…and
In the end an ounce of luck

He left us with far better ‘lessons’ than the above, but it is the best I can come up with for the moment. It is a shame his death was totally overshadowed by the death of someone who taught us very little.

I pity Frank Mir this Sunday. He is going to have a 120 kG of an angry Brock Lesnar pounding the absolute snot out of him! Mir can smile at the camera with his showy confident little grin all he likes but it doesn’t change the fact he will be eating his meals for the next three weeks through a straw.

As I see it money should be distributed as follows.

———-
Mark Coleman $3.73
V
Stephan Bonnar $1.26

Fitness and skill should see Bonnar through. Possibly Coleman’s last fight.

———-
Mac Danzig $2.35
V
Jim Miller $1.57

Mac Danzig for mine by decision.

———-
Jake OBrien $4.14
V
Jon Jones $1.22

Jon Jones by KO with a spinning back fist / Dirty Sanchez combo.

———-
Dan Henderson $1.42
V
Michael Bisping $2.80

Bisping to eek out a decision over Hendo but a bit unsure on this one.

———-
Jon Fitch $1.21
V
Paulo Thiago $4.26

Fitch by TKO in the second.

———-
Yoshihiro Akiyama $1.37
V
Alan Belcher $3.02

The man with the worst Johnny Cash tattoo EVER by head kick.

———-
Georges St Pierre $1.30
V
Thiago Alves $3.43

Alves by KO in the first.

———-
Brock Lesnar $1.45
V
Frank Mir $2.70

Lesnar to become the

UNDISPUTED
U F C
HEAVYWEIGHT
CHAMPION

Of

The

Woooooorrrrrrrrllllld

By slaughter at some stage!

Grave concerns I have for this series and the number one concern is the heart of Michael Clarke. I have listed out the top ten reasons why Australia won’t be winning this series and why my 3.20-1 bet on England is the smartest bet in a number of years.

1. Michael Clarke has the heart of a sparrow
2. Shane Warne is not there
3. Michael Clarke is just shit
4. Grahams Onion is ready to burst out as a major world threat
5. Nathan Hauritz throws down pies
6. Peter Siddle throws down pies
7. Phil “Don Bradman part II” Hughes will show he was massively overrated
8. Michael Clark will crumble under pressure from Bingles Bitching
9. Shane Warne retired
10. Mitchell Johnson faces to much on his own

Our top 10 ways to victory

1. Shane Warne announces a come back as Australian captain
2. Marcus North pulls of a Steve Waugh like performance down the order
3. Stuart “The Question” Clark hits form and supports Johnson a treat
4. Andrew “The Period” MacDonald swings it like a mofo
5. Ricky Ponting stops doing Valvoline ads
6. Ben Hilfenhaus plays & opens the attack instead of Clark
7. Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff announce their engagement
8. Shane Warne becomes Australian coach
9. Alastair Cook realises his name is spelt wrong
10. Wally Lewis turns out at first drop

I have fear but some hope. I look forward to the first session of many. Sleep is for the weak!

We have a new leader of the 2009 NRL tipping comp as above! Can he stay on top? find out in the coming weeks right here at notasmartman.com!

Guys just hearing some shocking news that Michael Jackson has died. Not sure why this is not being reported yet and will report more on this soon.

Andy Roddick will beat Federer in the final at Wimbledon making him cry on court one more time. This is a bold prediction that could pay dividends, Roddick is paying $6.50.

Casey Stoner to win in Laguna Seca. The second leg of my big return bet of the week. Roddick into Stoner KICK! 32-1 is tidy enough odds in a 2 leg bet surely.

Michael Jackons funeral will turn into a mad panic with many many people crushed to death in pandemonium as the body is torn to shreads by the fanatical fans alar Ayatollah Khomeini style.

I will finally recover from this hangover some time near Wednesday.

Lote Tuqiri will be outed as the man in the Humphrey suit. Apparently the ARU wanted him to stop and Lote refused.

Richard Wilkins will declare that Karl Stefenovic dead.

I will watch ‘the Hangover’ and concur that it is totally awesome!

The lead up to UFC 100 will prove to much and I will do another post about it.

A media outlet will declare house prices are going to skyrocket, this will be countered with a denial of such a phenomenon days later by a competing outlet.

Phil Gould will say the word ‘No’

I will purchase another useless electronic device on Ebay in yet another drunken stupor.

As a punishment for doing a ‘runner’on them Saturday night at least one of my friends will no show for UFC 100 rendering countless Corona’s undrunk.

Australian cyclist Cadel Evans will put a stick in the spokes of rival Lance Armstrong in an apparent attempt to show Armstrong that Karma is a BITCH!

The latest media sensation twitter has a lot of supporters. Some of them are suggesting that the media, as it currently stands is archaic and is basically ready to be totally replaced by the twitter phenomenon. Woe, woe, woe slow down there schmucko.

I have a twitter account and find it more appealing than any sort of myface or facenovel or whatever else there is out there (except for notasmartman.com of course). It is a good source of rumour and it is an interesting way to interact with people who you may not normally reach. I mean just the other day Dave Hughes was asking for questions to ask some niff on Rove and he fired in a question from the world of twitter … GOLD.

But in no way should or could a service like this replace the existing media arrangements. Like the internet not everything can be believed and I would liken the use of twitter more like reading a gossip magazine than following real time news events factually.

The problem the Courier Mail and all its industry colleagues face is that by the time some of these rumours become confirmed ‘news’ the general public has already run off with the apparent news themselves garnered from other ‘sources’ fact or fiction. I am not sure if they should attempt to compete with these services or not as a confirmed news source should always be sort, but twits just won’t wait.

One thing is for sure, the US Government has set a dangerous precedent by showing such faithful support for this service during the recent Iranian Election fracas. If they are so confident a service like this should remain open to the people of Iran during times like this, I hope they can live with this commitment if trouble should arise a little closer to home.

I am in the midst of a list of Notasmartman.com rules of twitter etiquette. You WILL enjoy these soon.