Game 93: Made it by that much

In another tight contest, the Bad Man slams a two run homer to key a 4 run eighth to push Boston past those pesky Twins, 6-5. Since the Ray-Rays lose in New Jack City, we are now 3 games out of first. W00t!

Everyone goes south every now and then

The “new” Billy Joel is out, at least in ITunes. Being the crusty old fogey that I am, I really should have waited and bought the CD, but being the impatient, unreasonable person that I also am, I just downloaded it.

It is the “30th Anniversary Edition” of “The Stranger”, which, IIRC, is by far Billy’s best selling record. In fact, for a while it was the second best seller in the history of Columbia Records, right behind, I believe, “Thriller”. I could be wrong. It has, of course, a remastered version of the album, plus a live “Stranger” era concert recording, recorded, IIRC, somewhere in New York City. I could look, but I don’t have Internet access at the moment.

I can’t really tell about the remastering. Perhaps my music expert wife can tell the difference, but I really can’t. I listened to it once, all the way through, and all I can really say, to be far, is that maybe the mix is a little cleaner. That’s all. It’s fine-don’t get me wrong. I’m a fanboy, so I have no objections towards buying the same album for the 3rd time, and in some cases the same song for the 8th or 9th time.

But, similar to the Led Zeppelin box set that I bought in the early nineties, my ear is not keen enough to hear the difference between the “original” CD and the remaster. I drew the line, though, at the new new remaster of Zeppelin that they put out in preparation for the concert they played in London. Not going to pay for that again again.

There’s a new verse to the live version of “The Entertainer” that I’ve never heard before. That’s interesting. The “Brenda and Eddie” section of the live “Scenes” is a little stripped down, which is different. The horns are much brassier-obviously live horns, instead of the synthesized ones that became more common later.

It’s nice to have another 1970s era Joel live recording to listen to. They are hard to find, and the whole thing from that era is just more energized. As Henry Rollins would put it, he’s out there defending his music against a public and a world of critics that didn’t yet anoint him as a genius. The band seems to work harder, Billy seems to play faster, the whole thing is just a little more rock and roll than a live album like “12 Gardens Live”. To my untrained ears, “Angry Young Man” is quite a bit faster.

Then again, I have to cut the man some slack. I’m comparing him from his twenties and thirties to his fifties and sixties. I can’t think of anyone except Tina Turner who doesn’t suffer with that comparison.












From the “Are you HIGH?” department, the SEC is considering loosening accounting rules. LOOSENING. Yeah, because it was all those tight rules that got us into this mess in the first place. What a fiasco.

Most Delusional Statement Ever

Douglas Feith, on 60 Minutes, on the Iraq War, “our goal was to prevent the next attack.” So, naturally, you invaded a country who didn’t attack us and had no terrorists there.

“I think the president made the right decision, given what he knew then, and given what we’ve learned since.” That is the clubhouse leader for Most Delusional Statement in Human History, right up there with “Sure, General Custer, I don’t think the Indians will attack today,” and “An air attack? On Pearl Harbor? They wouldn’t dare.”

No, wait, here’s a better one: Condeleeza Rice- “I am proud of the Iraq War.” Really? Wow. That’s a stunner.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/07/iraq.security/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Security is improving, they say.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/07/iraq.main/index.html

Bombings kill 11.

I guess, going from utterly horrible to just horrible is improvement, of sorts. What a disaster.

In Boston, the Red Sox scratched out an 8th inning run on an RBI single from the Bad Man. Dice K threw seven shutout innings, and Okey Doke vultured a win, which will, if nothing else, help my fantasy team.

Anyone have any nominations for "Most Delusional Statement in the History of Statements"?

In other news....(Game 91 Liveblogging)

Apparently, the Sabathia deal has gone through-Sabathia to Milwaukee for Matt Laporta and some loose change they found behind the sofa. Doesn't really affect Boston at all except, like the Santana deal, it keeps him away from the Yankees, who could have used him but didn't have the chips to cash in.

1 on, 1 out in the seventh now, 4-2. 8 outs to go, with Javy (Not That One) Lopez on. Facing Posada, who has fallen off a cliff, at least compared to his 2007 performance. He got old very quickly. But I won't say that he doesn't scare me, and he just showed me up by serving a soft single into right center to push AFraud to third. Nice little hit and run single.

Robby Cano now, who is a good young hitter, but has also had pretty much a lost season. And he jerks one into the gap for a triple that ties the score.

(Bad word.) (Very bad word.) (Obscene modifier-Bad Word.) Javy Lopez can really go (perform an anatomically impossible act). (Very, very bad word!)

Now ESPN is telling us that Girardi's ejection, earlier in the game, inspired the Yankees to begin hitting. What a bunch of (excrement).

Now a grounder to second by the Melkman, and Pedroia throws out Cano trying to score. Gutsy play that could have turned out badly, that wound up resounding in our favor. Phew.

Does every game between these teams have to last longer than the director's cut of Gandhi?

I completely missed the Wimbeldon final, which apparently was a doozy, won by Nadal. Federer is really one of the greatest to ever play the game, and because no one cares about his sport, practically no one notices.

Metropolitan District Commission is on now, who has great stuff but gets lit UP from time to time. The Red Sox seem to specialize in that sort of hurler. Dice K and Aardsma are like that, too.

But MDC strikes out the Flying Molina Brother to escape the jam. Love and 97 mph heat means never having to say you're sorry.

Drew leads off the next inning, and I think it's time for a patented JD "THIS is what I'm here for, bitches" homers to right center. We can give him the official Trot Nixon "I Own The Yankees" t shirt.

And Farnsworthless pops up Drew. Guess I jinxed him.

Yankee Stadium has a really, really short right field fence. Boston does too, but ours balloons immediately to 380, whereas theirs does not. Supposedly, back in the day, the owners of the Yankees and Red Sox agreed to trade Joe DiMaggio for Ted Williams, straight up. They sobered up before completing the trade, though, but ironically Yankee Stadium was suited for Williams, and Fenway for Joe. Would have been fun if it happened.

Lowell flied out, so now it's The Greek God of Walks. He's not Greek, but the name was given to him by Billy Beane in the book Moneyball, and I like to use it. So sue me.

And Farnsworthless blows away Youkilis for the 1-2-3 inning.

So now we move on to the bottom of the 8th, and our continually shaky bullpen. I sense bad tidings.

Brett Gardner, who looks a little bit like Paul O'Neill, yet hits more like Eugene O'Neill, against the mighty MDC, who strikes him out.

Now it's Captain Terrific, who does everything perfectly and is only thought in anything other than glowing terms by Communist terrorists who don't love their mothers. He grounds out to short.

Seriously, he's one hell of a baseball player. He's not as good as people think he is, but he's real, real good. If I has a baseball team, I would want him on it. Not as a shortstop, though.

Now it's Bobby, the former Phillie who sold out to The Man. He's a real good hitter, too-I wonder how he's going to be viewed when he retires. He has really solid numbers, but quiet ones. Not outsized, Ruth numbers, just quiet, same old same old Aaron numbers. Not as good, not as long, but consistent.

Abreu lines out to Ellsbury in short left to end the inning. Every time the Yankees are retired, I breathe a little easier.

Top of the ninth now. Let's scratch out a run, then shut them down and run like hell for the exit.

Mo is on to pitch, and Sean "Mighty" Casey singles, then pinch runner Brandon (Rolling Stone Gathers No) Moss advances to second on a Crisp bunt. Varitek pinch hits, squirting a fielder's choice that shoots Moss to third.

Now the marquee matchup. Manny Ramirez, the Bad Man himself, against Rivera, lead run at third base. Do you walk him? I would. Even in a slump, as he is, he's a Bad Man.

They're not going to walk him. Ballsy.

Strike one, called.

Strike two, called.

Manny's a good two strike hitter, but Jeez, man. Come on.

Strike three called.

(Very bad word.) (Expletive.) Mother(expletive)! (One of the Seven Dirty Words)!

So it's the Okey Doke, who has been ok, but at times gets rocked.

I sense a theme developing.

And the leadoff man is AFraud. Lovely.

Hanging curve way too high for ball one.

Smaller, tighter curve for called strike one.

Fastball way too low. Ball two.

Another curve, shot straight at Lowell. One out.

Now it's Thong Boy, the Giambino.

Fastball missed, ball one.

Fastball too low, ball two.

Curve outside, called strike.

Fastball too low, ball three.

Popped out to third-two out.

Posada, who John Sterling calls "Jorgie".

Called strike on a curve.

Missed with fastball ball one.

Called strike on a fastball.

Fouled off a curve.

Swing and a miss at another curve for strike three.

Phew. Nice piece of pitching by the Okey Doke.

Wow.

On to the tenth.

Another inning for Rivera.

Ellsbury pops up on a 1-1 cutter.

One out.

Pedroia whiffs.

Two out.

If we lose this game, Tampa goes up 5 full games, with New York only 4 behind us. Mentally, I laugh at Tampa, but we're running out of time. Those Naughty Fish have won seven straight.

Drew grounds out to short.

Sigh.

Bottom 10

Now it's time for Riverdance, Mister Jonathan Papelbon. Papelbon looks a little silly, like an kid wearing adult clothes, when he does his Pettite like gaze under the brim of his hat.

However, since Papelbon has only two pitches, one of which is usually a ball (the splitter), if they can get a bat on it, it can go a long way.

Cano grounds a base hit up the middle.

The Melkman now. He gets it near the mound, Papelbon retiring him at first with Cano advancing. Now Wilson (You Can) Betemit, hitting for a Flying Molina Brother.

Papelbon strikes out Betemit, and Brett (The Constant) Gardner is next.

The kid battles, and battles, and battles, and finally dribbles a splitter back up the middle, which sneaks by Lugo and Pedroia and into center field for a base hit that wins it.

(VERY VERY BAD WORD!)

Well, you have to hand it to them. We had the lead, and we gave it back to them, thanks to Firebug and Gasoline out there in the pen.

Ah, well.

Now back to my life.

Dictatorship of the proletariat

“The Woman Who Can’t Forget” was on To The Best of Our Knowledge. She, well, can’t forget. She has clear memories of every day of her life since age 14, and as far as scientists can tell, she’s legit. She made an interesting point that you don’t immediately think of (at least, I didn’t): Not only do you remember birthdays and first kisses, but also every lie you ever told, every person you ever slighted, every cutting remark you ever made. What a puzzling, awful burden.

Attention, people of Earth: You have to wait. You really, really do. I’m sorry, but that’s the way it is. Unless my pants are on fire (or, alternately, yours are), no matter what you have on your mind, you just have to wait until I’m finished talking with the person I was talking with. Sorry. That is all.

Cameron Reilly, who is the president of the Podcast Network, which brings me the marvelous Napoleon Podcast and the Biography Show, has been both twittering about and talking about, on his G’Day World podcast, his apparent affinity for socialism. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Personally, in my heart of hearts, I’m a socialist, too. The greatest good for the greatest number, all that. It’s all over the Bible, too-camel through the eye of the needle, etc. In an ideal world, that’s what I’d like to have happen.

Of course, we don’t live in an ideal world. Socialism, in my opinion, when it has been put into practice, has resulted in monstrously evil things. I am almost done with the CIA book I mentioned yesterday-it has progressed from postwar Berlin all the way to Yeltsin/Gorbachev era Russia-and one of the things the Russian characters mention is the Soviet belief that capitalism and the West bring out the worst parts of human nature. Don’t they, though?

Anyway, Cameron mentioned on Twitter that he didn’t think there was any evidence of the crimes of the Castro regime, and then on his podcast he brought up the 80th birthday of the late guerilla leader Ernesto “Che” Stadium.


Sorry, old joke. Che Guevara.

Cameron made the point that, if you believe Guevara committed crimes and committed terrorism, then you need to “read a book”. He recommends “Legacy of Ashes”, which I have also blogged about before and really need to pick up, it looks like.

Now, I know very little about Che Guevara and only a little bit more about Castro. I am fully willing to posit that what I know, and what I may learn, is almost certainly at least slanted, and in places possibly falsified, by simple ignorance on the part of historians as well as CIA/Western disinformation.

That being said, is there any real doubt that secret prisons, murder, rape, and torture occur under Castro? I will give you the fact that the CIA, only based on what we have been able to learn, has been involved with not only morally dubious, but downright heinous adventures from the very beginning. I will also give you the fact that the American government from the very beginning has desperately wanted Castro’s government to fall and has actively sought to make it do so.

Cameron tried to argue on Twitter that Cuban prisoners have violated Cuban law, just like in any other country, therefore Castro is not a dictator. If you have to pass a law to forbid dissent, as I think you pretty much do in a Communist state, isn’t that de facto a dictatorship? Is there a single example of a Communist state without a horrific human rights record? Doesn’t it follow that Cuba must be the same?

Is it possible that how ever many millions of people have decided, no, we’d rather have laws forbidding dissent and giving us free health care and education? With no one disagreeing? And, if the system is so perfect in every way, why not expose it to an election and let the people flock to your banner?

The right to freedom of thought-to freely think what one wishes and express it whenever one wishes-simply has to be a fundamental one. It’s messy, sure-it opens up the stage to Holocaust deniers, racists, sexists, anti Semites, and all manner of other subhuman refuse. But the solution to hate speech, as Alan Dershowitz wisely notes, is not speech codes but more speech-better speech-the will of the majority saying to the spittle drenched morons, “Sorry- that’s not the way the rest of us feel. Go ahead and say it, but we’re going to stand here and ignore you. We-our union, our laws- are stronger than you are- so strong that we can allow you to act like an irresponsible idiot without it damaging the rest of us. ”

I see the contradiction-a Stalinist state can’t allow freedom of speech, because if people see what they don’t have, as they sing in “Chess”, “trinkets in airports” will be “sufficient to lead them astray”. But given that they have to do that, they wind up being dictatorships. I don’t know of any counterexamples, nor can I imagine any other way it can turn out.

Once again, I am not arguing that America’s hands are clean in all this. We have tortured, murdered, and done all sorts of awful things in the name of defending freedom over the years. I guess the difference is we meant well-some of the time, anyway-and we’re trying to do better-some of us, anyway. And, of course, the largest point of all is that I won’t get thrown into jail for writing this.

Reminds me of the old joke Ronald Reagan used to tell about an American and a Russian meeting on the street. The American says, “You know what’s great about my system? I can stand in front of the White House with a sign that says ‘President Reagan is a no good scoundrel’, and nothing will happen to me.” The Russian replies, “I can do that, too. I could stand in front of the Kremlin with a sign that says ‘President Reagan is a no good scoundrel’, and nothing would happen to me, either.”

In New York City, Boston is clinging to a 3-2 advantage in the top of the seventh. After a Kevin "Dollar Dollar Bill Y'All" Cash double scores Lugo, that pushes the lead to 4-2, with nine outs to go. I'd feel a little better with a 14-2 advantage, but it will do. If we can hold on, that would make it 3 out of 4 from New York and a (somewhat) decisive blow.

Jason Giambi looks funny with a mustache.

Headline says it all

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/05/g8/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

"Bush lowers expectations for his final G8 Summit."

George Bush lowers expectations. They didn't have far to go, sir.

How much is too much?

http://www.theimproper.com/Template_Article.aspx?IssueId=4&ArticleId=1846

Let me get this straight....you're married to Christie G*dd&*n Brinkley, and you are having an affair?

Are you serious?

With who? Heidi Klum?

Geez louise.

Meme Time

LAYER 1: ON THE OUTSIDE
Name : Michael
Birth Date : 10/17/1971
Current Status : Married
Eye colour : Blue
Righty or lefty : Righty

LAYER 2 : ON THE INSIDE
My Heritage : Scotch (If it's not scottish it's crap!)
My Fears : The Future
My Weaknesses : Food
My Perfect Pizza : Deep dish, with multiple cheeses

LAYER 3 : YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW
My thoughts first waking up : "I can't wait to go to sleep again."
My bedtime : Usually around midnight.
My most missed memory : the last time Simon laughed at something I did.

LAYER 4 : MY PICK
Pepsi or Coke : Coke Zero
McDonald or Burger King : Burger King
Single or grouped dates : Single
Adidas or Nike : Nike
Tea or Nestea : Chai
Chocolate or vanilla : Vanilla
Cappuccino or coffee : Cappuccino

LAYER 5 : DO YOU…
Smoke : No
Curse : Yes
Take a shower : Yes, most assuredly. Nothing worse than a stinky fat man.
Think you’ve been in love : Yes
Go to school : No.
Want to get married : Again? No one could replace my bride.
Believe in yourself : Believe in my capacity to disappoint? Sure.

LAYER 6 : IN THE PAST
Alcohol : No.
Gone to the mall : Yes
Been on stage : Yes
Eaten sushi : Yes.
Dyed your hair : No.

LAYER 7 : HAVE U EVER
Played a stripping game : No!
Changed who you were to fit in : Yes.

LAYER 8 : AGE YOU’RE HOPING…
To get married : Never again. I want to die in my wife's arms.

LAYER 9 : IN A GUY/GIRL…
Best eye colour : No preference.
Best hair colour : No preference.
Short hair or long hair : Long.
Best height : No preference.
Attitude : Able to laugh.

LAYER 10 : WHAT WERE YOU DOING…
A minute ago : Typing this.
Hour ago : Listening to the Slate Political Gabfest and commenting on blogs.
4.5 hours ago : Working
1 month ago : Working
Year ago : Working

LAYER 11 : FINISH THE SENTENCES…
I love : rock and roll
I feel : drained.
I hate : intolerance.
I hide : my panic
I miss : knowing.
I need : to believe.

Barbeque The Cherry

OH (overheard) at work: “You can’t have a barbeque without cherries.”

Um…..yes. Yes, you can. I’ve had literally hundreds of barbeques without a cherry in sight. If I were to make a list called “Essential things to bring to a barbeque”, “cherries” would be far from the top of the list. It would be located somewhere around “scuba gear” and “sharpened pencils”, way down near the bottom of the list.

OH at work: “Knowing, caring, and understanding are not two, but three different things.”

I feel like I have to elaborate on yesterday’s post.

(And lo, the multitudes cried out, “Yes! Explain thyself!”)

Firstly, and primarily, there really isn’t any other country in the world that lets you natter on like this. Yes, Western countries have most of the same degree of personal freedom that Americans do, and I guess, when you say “America is the freest country in the world,” you should, for the sake of completeness, say that “America and the Western democracies are the freest region in the world.” To paraphrase the great Lewis Black, “nowhere else in the world lets an asshole like me talk like this.” I love my country the way I love my wife-with all flaws clearly in view and acknowledged, but overcome by a deep, abiding respect for the larger beauties.

You can go on and on about America’s flaws. And people have. And whoa, do we have some doozies.

We never really came to grips with either the Native American or African American genocides. We still haven’t really figured out how to integrate capitalism, with its clear winners and clear losers, and Judeo-Christian humanity, with its clear absence of winners and losers. We still haven’t figured out how to deal with the effluent from a modern industrial economy.

One of the most heartening thing I have learned in my reading in history is that the Founders, and really all of our ancestors, saw these problems and acknowledged them. They didn’t go so far as to solve them, naturally. Then again, neither have we. But they didn’t (not ALL of them) completely ignore them, put them on a shelf and put their fingers in their ears, yelling “la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!”

They were men. They dealt with things the best they could. As baseball historian Bill James puts it, we should look upon their failings with sympathy, in hopes that future generations will look upon ours the same way. There are plenty of books willing to expose hypocrisy and corruption and evil in American history, but to focus on just the dark passages misses the point.

I react just as violently against the sunny, Lee Greenwood, aint everything grand school. I shrink away from celebrating patriotism because it has become, in this day and age, a de facto denial that there has ever been anything wrong in this “shining city on a hill”. I don’t know how to express the mixed blessing of the accident of my birth in one of the richest parts of the wealthiest nation on earth. I hate war, but I love military history and was raised and educated by my father, who worked for a major defense contractor for most of his life.

I am reading “The Company”, a marvelous novel about the CIA. It is historical fiction, but has real people in it. It dovetails nicely with this discussion, as does this week’s “Left, Right and Center”. So many millions, throughout the years, have been trying to make the right decisions with the imperfect and incomplete information in front of them.

The moderator on “LRC”, Matt Miller, points out, rightly, that so often right wing patriotism obscures or denies flaws, while left wing patriotism obscures or denies strengths. Robert Scheer rightly comes back with the observation about how many times Republicans who didn’t serve, or barely served, (Nixon, Reagan, Bush II) had no problem calling into question the patriotism of Democrats who did (McGovern, Carter, Kerry). Military service is not the sole arbiter of patriotism, but to call a vet who faced the bullets unpatriotic while you didn’t is pretty galling.

I was watching “Independence Day”, again, last night, and it occurred to me that so many films where the president, or symbols of the president, were defiled or destroyed were made during the 1990s. As if the fact that Clinton was president gave them license to mock the office or something like that. Or perhaps, more simply, it was simply that the first young, vital president since Kennedy gave scriptwriters the inspiration of a president being anything other than an old man.

In New York, Boston wasted a fine start by Bat Masterson and fell to New York, 2-1. They loaded the bases in the ninth, but Mariano Rivera shut the rally down to seal the loss. Tampa plays at home against the Royals tonight, so if the Naughty Fish win, Boston will be 4 games out. Tim Wakefield, who has both owned the Yankees at time and gotten lit up by them at times, pitches tomorrow night for Boston against Joba the Hutt.

There was an interesting point on the Slate Cultural Gabfest-perhaps George Carlin doesn't seem as funny anymore because his influence is so pervasive that it is part of the environment.

America (America)

In the Boogie Down this afternoon, the always dangerous, though lately punchless, New York Yankees got three first inning runs, then threatened late, bringing the tying run to the plate before Bobby Abreu flew out to deep center, sealing a 6-4 win.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3473708&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

Nothing more American than that.

It is July 4, Independence Day in the United States. Independence Day is when the Declaration of Independence was adopted, marking, essentially, the start of the Revolutionary War. (On July 4, 1776, the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill had already occurred.) I am conflicted.

I have spent the day rewatching parts of HBO's John Adams, while intermittently chasing my nephew Simon around the house.

I have really sunk into a malaise about my future, and, in a sense, the nation's.

America has faced horrible crises in the past-threatened by its very survival. It seems, though, that the present crisis is unprecedented in its scope. I fear that the current issues are so perilous, and so utterly insolvable, I don't think even a man as bright as Senator Obama can solve them.

Crazy Eights (Game 88)

In a piece of good news I neither expected, nor, frankly, deserved, Lonesome Jon Lester went into Yankee Stadium and throttled the Yankees, tossing a 105 pitch, 5 hit shutout. This pushes Boston within 3 games of first place, and puts them 5 full games in front of New York.

Swept Away

In Tampa tonight, Boston went out to a 4-1 lead, before a disastrous 7th inning featuring 'Ol Sleepyhead, Craig Hansen, gave Tampa a 7-4 lead. Boston got one back in the 8th, then one more in the 9th. A blown hit and run helped kill the rally, and Boston dies another day, 7-6.

Tampa completes the sweep and leads Boston by 3 1/2 games in the division.

Eighty Sixed (Game 86)

In Tampa, Boston lost again, 3-1, falling further behind the Naughty Fish and wasting another fine effort by Tim Wakefield.

Overheard inside my head, lunchtime today: "Gee, this Weight Watchers meal doesn't have instructions about how to cook both sandwiches......Oh. I guess that's the point."

The instructions even say "Unwrap one sandwich and put the other one back in the freezer." In other words, "No, fat boy, you CANT have two."



http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh/?yrail

In the New Yorker, Seymour Hersh outlines the Administration's plans for war in Iran.

War with Iran?

Jesus Christ.

End of June, Spoon, Aloon (Game 85)

In Tampa Bay, the slumping Sox fall to the streaking Rays, 5-4. Boston actually got the tying run to third base in the top of the 9th, getting two runs off of the truly terrible Troy Percival before finally falling just short.

Today is Bill Gates' supposed last day at Microsoft. I started with Microsoft Windows running on an IBM Aptiva, that being the first computer I bought and used regularly. The first words I wrote, in paragraphs and pages on a word processor on a computer were on a IBM PC running MS DOS 2.0. Whatever credit Gates deserves for all this (there is some debate), I can honestly say my life would not be the same without what he and his company brought. Attention must be paid, as the saying goes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/washington/24cnd-justice.html?ex=1372132800&en=e6b03ffea4b067ce&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Further proof that the Bush Administration has ruined absolutely everything- a program that the Justice Department used to attract young lawyers was twisted to partisan purposes. A recent report shows that the Bush Administration discriminated against candidates with so called liberal associations or hobbies. The childishness of these people, with their paranoid fear of exposure to an idea they are unfamiliar, would be funny if it weren't so deeply frightening.

Still Energy To Be Found in Houston (Game 84)

In Houston, the Red Sox lost again, this time 3-2 to Brian "Scuffy" Moehler and his bullpenny friends. This pushes Boston down into second place, 1/2 game behind the Tampa Bay Naughty Fishies, who defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates.