“Announcement: The oppression will continue until morale improves.”

If you recall those heady, sweat-soaked months after 9/11, when America couldn’t decide if it was a rabid pit-bull with a belly full of rage, or an overly abused Harbor Seal in need of round-the-clock maximum-security protection, the mantra was: “If you don’t travel, the terrorists win.”

“If you don’t watch football, the terrorists win.”

“If you don’t go out and spend money at the malls for Christmas, the terrorists win.”

And so, we did all those things.

But a funny thing has happened. Despite our unchecked gluttony and relentless observation of the color-coded Terror Threat Level: the terrorists won. America still stands and we can still kick most other country’s asses with “shock and awe” and twenty-four hour embedded media coverage. But the things that Americans value have been napalmed: freedom, safety, and personal wealth. While the mega-rich are not much worse off than they were in 2001, most everyone else…

My best friend passed away last month.

Actually she was murdered.

She had moved to New York in the spring to work on her music career. On September 19 she got into an argument with the man she was living with, and he shot her twice. She died on the scene.

Penna and I met in 2007 and became instant best friends. Within a year we were referring to each other as “brother and sister.” That’s how close we were – the 20-year age difference also made it quite easy for me to see her as a little sister.

She was one of the most gorgeous women I have ever seen or known. She was also remarkably bright and talented. Her death is a tragedy on many levels.

I have set up a memorial web site for her at http://pennapiererra.com/.

This was the year.

This was the year the Jets (or maybe Dolphins) would take back the AFC-East from the New England Patriots.

The Pats were rebuilding.

They had rookies at tight end. Moss was getting up there in years and you just needed to double-cover him to erase him from the game. Welker was coming off major knee surgery and couldn’t possibly be one-hundred percent. Brady looked less than sharp the season before.

They had the youngest defense in the league and couldn’t get off the field on third down, much less rush the passer. They cut ties with their malcontent “stud” linebacker, Adalius Thomas.

The team couldn’t win on the road or finish games last year due largely to many of the elder team leaders no longer being with the organization, the Patriots were now seen as “soft.” Belichick didn’t hire a defensive coordinator, he would do that job and be head coach. And the same offensive coordinator who…

What. The. Hell?

OK. So maybe it isn’t all that mysterious.

The bottom line is that the Giants simply played better. That’s right, and the good news is that this was actually a good game. It wasn’t decided by horrific penalties. Or flukes. Nobody was injured. And the decision wasn’t really certain until the very end. It was a really good game to watch.

Well, unless you were a Patriots fan. Not so much because they lost, but because of how they played. Well, that isn’t completely accurate either. The defense held the Giants to only 17 points. Against this Patriots offense, that should have been more than enough. With Brady, Moss, Welker, Stallworth, Faulk, and Maroney … surely they should be able to score more than 17 points. Right?

Right?

No.

But before we dissect where the biggest guns to come from Boston since they stopped making battleships up in New Bedford went wrong, lets just take a gander…

The Starz network put together a really nice biography on Hunter S. Thompson this year. It wasn’t as much of a bio as a memorial, a remembrance. All of the people he worked with and knew, all the celebrities and personalities who’s lives he touched getting together on film to remember Hunter.

Everyone from Gary Busey to George McGovern was there. Reflecting on Thompson, his life, and his work. Including Johnny Depp and Bill Murray, both of whom played Thompson in feature films.

There were some interesting revelations. For instance, the man who coined the term “Gonzo” and lived his life almost perpetually in motion needed his “home base.” His farm in Woody Creek, CO. He needed to feel tethered to some thing. Some place. He needed that sanctuary from The Weirdness. One would expect someone who lived in a state of excess like Thompson to be completely unrooted and ungrounded, but quite the opposite was the case.

Another aspect…