Hi everyone,

Welcome back.  How are you?  Come on in, make yourself comfortable.  Why yes, I did get a haircut.  No, I'm not going into the Army, I just couldn't take it anymore in all this heat and humidity, so I had the woman shear me like a sheep.  I don't know if that was her first time using the clippers or what, but her technique was shall we say, "less than gentle."  In fact, I'm pretty sure she drew blood at one point.  Anyway, it's already cooler around here now, and I'm a much happier camper (plus, BDH and Little Buddha approve), so it's all good.  Now that we've gotten that out of the way, help yourself to a nice medium iced DD, and let's clear out some Thursday Clutter.

Before we get started, today marks the 7th anniversary of Grandpa Clutter's passing, and we'll run our annual tribute later in the year, but I just want to say that I love you Grandpa, and I miss you.

Okay, let's get down to business.

Hey, give him credit, Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester looked strong giving up only two runs and striking out eight batters in 6 1/3 innings as the Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6[-2 on Tuesday.  That's the best Lester has looked in about 10 starts, so the question now is how do they keep him consistent for the remainder of the season, particularly if Clay Buchholz isn't coming back for at least another month?

Clutter is strongly in support of Dustin Pedroia's new contract extension with the Red Sox.  However, we still laugh and shake our heads a bit when sports writers and announcers talk about Pedey now having "security for his family."  Come on, folks.  Pedroia has already made somewhere around $30 million over the course of his career.  His "security" was locked in years ago.   This is a story of a player who is being rewarded for performing at a high level and is expected to continue doing so.  It's a good business deal for both sides, but let's not pretend like the Pedroia family might go hungry or homeless at some point.

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick finally makes some public commments about Aaron Hernandez and said he's "shocked" and "disappointed" to find out that he had possible murderer on his team.

Eager to move on.  (pic via si.com)

I hope failed U.S. Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez isn't losing too much sleep trying to decide if he should run for governor or not.  This is the beauty of running for office as a Republican in Massachusetts, after you've done it once, you can claim to be considering other offices, and the press has to treat it like you're automatically a legitimate candidate.

The Obama administration continues to put other issues ahead of keeping teens healthy.  First, they fight like crazy to keep emergency contraception from going over-the-counter when there was no scientific justification for that decision.  Then they lose that battle, but then the FDA proceeds to grant an exclusive three-year window for Teva Pharmaceuticals to make the over-the-counter version, which will make it much more expensive ($50) than a generic version ($15) and likely still reduce access for teens who want to avoid becoming pregnant.

The extremists in the House GOP are so unhinged that even after voting against Obamacare 400 times, they'd rather shut the government down than fund health care reform.  This plan is going to fail, but when will this country stop being held hostage by these whackjobs?

Google TV says they're not dead yet.  Why does this sound so familiar?

This just keeps getting better:  Alex Rodriguez is publicly fighting with the New York Yankees over whether or not he actually has a quad strain that's keeping him from the field.  Just pull the trigger and suspend/ban him already.

First rule about a Fight Club sequel is that you don't talk about a Fight Club sequel.

On the other hand, we can talk about a Rocky spinoff as much as you want.  No, it's not about Paulie.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  My friend Sophie Godley posted this clip on Facebook yesterday, and I can't stop watching as this mama bear tries to free her cub out of a trash bin (with another cub's assistance.)  Thankfully it all works out when the authorities free the bear.  The best part is when said bear crawls out with an expression that clearly says, "What the bleep just happened?"  See for yourself with today's, "Clip of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  Enjoy the rest of your day, and we'll see you back here again for more fun soon.  Until next time, that's today's Clutter, and we are outta here.