Others who need to shut up, after Carter

How about those Patriots.

My son-in-law and I sat there Sunday night (Jan. 14, 2007) and watched the impossible happen. The Patriots, after three quarters of mediocre football, beat what had been called the best team in football by keeping their cool.

And then, like other teams, especially the San Diego Chargers, they celebrated.

And thus, the first guy who needs to shut up.

LaDainian Tomlinson, the most valuable everything who admittedly is a pretty good football player, had to open his big mouth.

How dare the Pats celebrate in his house.

A couple of points. Number 1: That's the price you pay when you host games. You run the risk of losing and the team who beat you will celebrate on your lawn. The St. Louis Cardinals had to watch the Boston Red Sox dance on their lawn in 2004 for not just a lousy playoff game, but for the whole World Series and for not winning one since 1918.

Second point, you call yourself a classy guy who would never do that. Well, you didn't get a chance to find out. My son, I am sure you are a stand-up guy and are quite good to all and sundry who interact with you. But, you made a bad error . You believe your publicity. And your teammates believe your publicity, which means they may not play as hard as they might otherwise. It's a team sport. There are 11 guys on the field, dozens of others off the field and if even one of them lets down because you are such a great player, well, you lose.

So, let me react to your complaint about the Pats dancing on your lawn.

SORE LOSER!

Speaking of people who need to shut up -- the refs near the end of that game.

They penalized the Pats for taking off their helmets in celebration after the failed final field goal try. With eight seconds to go. For Pete's sake (as in Roselle), nuff is nuff. Get a life, fellas. You posted enough bad calls, like calling a touchdown when the ball had squirted out of the Charger player's hands. Really.

Enough about the game.

Another person who needs to shut up is Joe Lieberman.

Really, Joe, I love you and all, but have we not learned anything about this bunch of losers who are running Iraq. Another bad hanging. The guy's head popped off, for crying out loud.

I know when you were was on "Meet the Press" on Sunday banging the drum for the president's plan to send 20-some odd thousand more Americans to try to shore up the weak, ineffectual, corrupt government in Iraq, the hanging had not yet taken place.

But Joe, what makes you think throwing more troops into the maw will make a difference? Did we not learn from Vietnam, when the DLBO (ask any Vietnam combat vet what that means) scattered and the Americans had to do the fighting. And more troops didn't improve the odds, just raised the U.S. body count.

The only difference between Iraq and Vietnam is that in Vietnam, we walked into the middle of somebody else's civil war. In Iraq, we, that is Bush and his minions, started the civil war.

I know you are trying to find a solution that will help the greater middle east and ultimately help Israel. That's got to be your goal. But do you really think that by throwing more U.S. troops into the mix while those allies who are still there, like Britain, pull out, we will accomplish this goal?

You know the truth. You are too smart not to. The guys who attacked us live in Afghanistan, not Iraq. They have moved into Iraq to take advantage of the chaos we caused. We need to go to Afghanistan and root them out, the real guys who attacked New York and Arlington, Va. We haven't got the guys to do both.

Look, the war will eventually end up as the Iranians and southern Iraqis (Shia) versus the Saudis and Qataris and the rest of these oil rich guys (Sunnis). Watch the first half of "Lawrence of Arabia." One tribe against the other. The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York had it right when he said we are paying for the mistakes after World War I. The British and French carved up the Middle East with no regard for tribal territories. They gave pieces to their allies. Then they have a quarter-piece to the Jews and have been trying to take it away ever since, but that's another story.

So, let's let these guys fight it out. We weren't much affected by the Iran-Iraq war. The price of gas will go up. Big deal. There are far too many SUVs on the road already. Bush has paid back his father's pals enough for bailing him out of the oil and baseball fiascos he got himself into in Texas (see We Should Have Known, December 2006.)

Back to the stooges who are running Iraq. Like a dumb and slightly crooked brother-in-law, these guys are giving us a bad name.

Look, just like Saddam, this guy who was hanged and had his head popped off needed killing. But if these idiots in Iraq can't hang people correctly, then why not shoot them or blow them up?

Those guys have proven they're really good at that.