CHESSNOID

I watched 3 boxing matches last night. They were all entertaining. I caught Vernon Forrest getting out boxed for 12 rounds by the “Contender” Sergio Mora. That fight was on Showtime. I kept waiting for Forrest to do some damage but nothing happened. Then on HBO there was a 1st round knockout of Daniel Ponce De Leon who lost his WBO Belt to Juan Manuel Lopez via a vicious first round knockout. DeLeon looked bigger coming into the ring at 122 pounds, but Lopez was just sharper and landed 2 good punches to take him out. The last fight I saw was Kelly Pavlik knocking out Gary Lockett. I must say this Pavlik boxer is just very exciting to watch. He is either a middleweight or super middleweight, not too sure but he has a perfect record and a high percentage of wins by knockouts. So everytime I watch him I expect to see a great knockout like the old Mike Tyson. Pavlik is deceptive because he isn’t super muscular and doesn’t look like he has knock out power, but his performance says otherwise.

I did catch the Matt Hughes fight against Thiago Alves. I think Alves is moving up, but I think Hughes through the fight. I can’t believe his skill levels have gone down or that Alves has become that good. I guess we will see how Alves fairs against Georges St Pierre when they eventually fight. I am always suspicious of UFC because I have seen some fights that looked fix. Not that I have any proof, but when I watch the fights more than once, I see things that look suspect.

I also watched some of the French Open tennis. I didn’t see the women’s finals but that girl Ana Ivanovic who won sure looks like a model. As far as Nadal vs Federer, I think those 2 guys are amazing. Both at the top of their game and both humble. I don’t like that 3rd ranked guy. His head is just way too big. I am happy he lost to Nadal and that Nadal was able to win the whole thing and make history. To be undefeated in Roland Garros is simply amazing.

When I stepped out today, I saw some cheap gas at only $4.37 a gallon. LOL. How funny is it when we’ll be talking about seeing cheap gas being above $5.00 a gallon. The news reports that the average price around the nation is $4.00 a gallon. I hate it when our state is way above average. My last post, I indicated that we had a recession in Bush’s first term and that we are in one now. Some idiot commented that recession was a leftover recession from Clinton’s term. I can’t understand why people don’t see the correlation of spending billions of dollars in a war that produced no results. Why is it people just can’t see the facts. This same idiot thinks that this 2nd unofficial recession we are in right now (in Bush’s 2nd term) is not his fault either because of Katrina hurricane, 9/11, the war in Iraq, and the housing crisis. The policies that the President and his cabinet follow will affect how our economy will perform. Anyways, this reader seemed very mad that I suggested our current President had anything to do with the state of our current economy. I know when I get comments protecting Bush and his failed policies that the reader simply voted for him the last two elections. Hey, there is nothing wrong with that. Everyone is entitled to vote for whoever they want, but you can’t argue the results that now exist. I don’t really know if Al Gore or John Kerry would have done a better job if they were elected, but chances are they wouldn’t have mucked it up this bad.

I remember when Bush took office, a gallon of gas was only $1.20 and I could fill my car up for less than $20. It wasn’t that long ago, but now it feels like it. For gas to be at $4.50 a gallon now and to be on its way to $10 in the near future seems like watching Mad Max. Completely unreal and unthinkable. Just a story of fiction.

The market took a tumble last Friday because of the spike in crude oil prices which hit an all time record above $139 a barrel and a crazy increase in unemployment numbers. We have some more reports this week that will make the stock market volatile.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks plunged on Friday, marking the Dow’s worst day in 15 months, after the government said the May unemployment rate jumped the most in 22 years and oil prices shot to another record, renewing fears that the U.S. economy faces 1970s-style stagflation.

The one-two punch of those remarkable catalysts sent investors fleeing from stocks into the safety of government bonds on the worry that corporate profits will remain under siege for longer than currently forecast. The benchmark S&P 500 fell 2.8 percent for the week to close near a two-month low.

U.S. crude’s dramatic $11 jump — its biggest-ever one-day spike in dollar terms — fueled concerns about inflation and consumers’ spending power, a key driver of economic growth.

Oil thundered past the old high hit in late May on the dollar’s weakness and tensions in the Middle East.

General Electric Co and other economic bellwethers slid after a Labor Department report showed the unemployment rate rose in May to 5.5 percent — its highest level since October 2004 — from April’s jobless rate of 5.0 percent. The report also showed the economy shed jobs for a fifth straight month.

Analysts said a backdrop of slowing growth and rising price pressures, known as stagflation, could tie the hands of the Federal Reserve as it seeks to boost a sputtering economy.

“This is the worst economic environment,” said Dave Rovelli, managing director of U.S. equity trading at Canaccord Adams in New York. “I don’t see how this is not stagflation.”