Francis Collins, head of the US National Human Genome Research Institute, and one of the leaders who helped "crack" the human genome code, says there is a rational basis for belief in a creator. He sees it in the complexity of DNA.
“When you have for the first time in front of you this 3.1 billion-letter instruction book that conveys all kinds of information and all kinds of mystery about humankind, you can’t survey that going through page after page without a sense of awe."
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Friday, June 23, 2006
This Is Disgraceful
According to a new "American Weddings" study conducted by The Fairchild Bridal Group, the average couple walks down the aisle dragging a $26,327 price tag. To put things in perspective, the U.S. wedding industry generated $125 billion in 2005, about the same amount as Ireland's GDP.
With all of the need around us, is this the best we can do?
With all of the need around us, is this the best we can do?
And There's More
COLUMBUS, OHIO (6/21/06)-While addressing a morning Eucharist at the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori declared, "Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation. And you and I are His children."
What the *^%&?
What the *^%&?
Nice
From an interview with the next Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church USA:
Interviewer: So what happens after I die?
SCHORI: What happens after you die?.. uhh– I would ask you that question.. but what’s important about your life; what is it that has made you a unique individual.. what is the passion that has kept you getting up every morning and engaging the world..uh.. there are hints within that about what it is that continues after you die.
Interviewer: So what happens after I die?
SCHORI: What happens after you die?.. uhh– I would ask you that question.. but what’s important about your life; what is it that has made you a unique individual.. what is the passion that has kept you getting up every morning and engaging the world..uh.. there are hints within that about what it is that continues after you die.
Why Soccer Will Never Be Accepted In America?
But there is one obstacle to soccer acceptance that seems insurmountable: the flop-'n'-bawl.
Turn on a World Cup game, and within 15 minutes you'll see a grown man fall to the ground, clutch his leg and writhe in agony after being tapped on the shoulder by an opposing player. Soccer players do this routinely in an attempt to get the referees to call foul. If the ref doesn't immediately bite, the player gets up and moves along.
Making a show of your physical vulnerability runs counter to every impulse in American sports. And pretending to be hurt simply compounds the outrage. Basketball has floppers, but the players who do it--like Bill Laimbeer, whose flopping skills helped the Detroit Pistons win two NBA championships--are widely vilified and, in any case, they're pretending to be fouled; they never pretend to be injured. When baseball players are hit by a pitch, the code of conduct dictates that they can walk it off, if they must, but by no means may they rub the point of impact. And pretending you're hurt? There's not even a rule against that--every red-blooded American baseball cheater knows nobody would ever do that.
Turn on a World Cup game, and within 15 minutes you'll see a grown man fall to the ground, clutch his leg and writhe in agony after being tapped on the shoulder by an opposing player. Soccer players do this routinely in an attempt to get the referees to call foul. If the ref doesn't immediately bite, the player gets up and moves along.
Making a show of your physical vulnerability runs counter to every impulse in American sports. And pretending to be hurt simply compounds the outrage. Basketball has floppers, but the players who do it--like Bill Laimbeer, whose flopping skills helped the Detroit Pistons win two NBA championships--are widely vilified and, in any case, they're pretending to be fouled; they never pretend to be injured. When baseball players are hit by a pitch, the code of conduct dictates that they can walk it off, if they must, but by no means may they rub the point of impact. And pretending you're hurt? There's not even a rule against that--every red-blooded American baseball cheater knows nobody would ever do that.
Quote of the Day
The press can both simulate public opinion and miseducate it. Thus we may see terrorists heroized, or secret matters, pertaining to one's nation's defense, publicly revealed, or we may witness shameless intrusion on the privacy of well-known people under the slogan: 'everyone is entitled to know everything.' But this is a false slogan, characteristic of a false era: people also have the right not to know, and it is a much more valuable one. The right not to have their divine souls stuffed with gossip, nonsense, vain talk. A person who works and leads a meaningful life does not need this excessive burdening flow of information.
Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic disease of the 20th century and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press. In-depth analysis of a problem is anathema to the press. It stops at sensational formulas. Such as it is, however, the press has become the greatest power within the Western countries, more powerful than the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. One would then like to ask: by what law has it been elected and to whom is it responsible? -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn, from a speech at Harvard in 1978
Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic disease of the 20th century and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press. In-depth analysis of a problem is anathema to the press. It stops at sensational formulas. Such as it is, however, the press has become the greatest power within the Western countries, more powerful than the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. One would then like to ask: by what law has it been elected and to whom is it responsible? -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn, from a speech at Harvard in 1978
Divided Loyalties
Homer Bailey Update
Reds minor league prodigy Homer Baily made his AA debut last night:
6 innings
5 hits
0 runs
0 walks
7 k's
Fastball hitting 95-96
Curveball 76
6 innings
5 hits
0 runs
0 walks
7 k's
Fastball hitting 95-96
Curveball 76
Yet Another Pathetic Newsroom
The story from the LA Times is about pitcher ace pitcher Luke Hochevar of the University of Tennessee and his professional agent Scott Boras. Here is the original passage in the story:
Being selected No. 1 overall affirmed that his decision to shun the Dodgers had been the right move, Hochevar said.
“Scott had a plan in this, and his master plan definitely worked,” Hochevar said. “It was tough through it — you go through it and you fight it — but when it all comes down to it, Scott has a plan for you, and he definitely worked a miracle in my case.”
Now, to most normal people the "Scott had a plan" and "Scott has a plan" talk probably sounds a bit weird. Well, that's because it's not what he said.
An article in Sports on June 7 quoted pitcher Luke Hochevar, drafted by the Kansas City Royals, as referring to “Scott” — Scott Boras, his agent — when in fact he used the word “God.” Here is the correct quote: “God had a plan in this, and his master plan definitely worked. It was tough through it — you go through it and you fight it — but when it all comes down to it, God has a plan for you, and he definitely worked a miracle in my case.”
Huh? I don't think the reporter could have mistaken the sound of the word "Scott" for "God"...that's a stretch. Could it be the reporter had NEVER heard someone speak about God in this way? Bingo. It's time for the newsroom types to get out of the office and expand their cocooned, small lives.
Being selected No. 1 overall affirmed that his decision to shun the Dodgers had been the right move, Hochevar said.
“Scott had a plan in this, and his master plan definitely worked,” Hochevar said. “It was tough through it — you go through it and you fight it — but when it all comes down to it, Scott has a plan for you, and he definitely worked a miracle in my case.”
Now, to most normal people the "Scott had a plan" and "Scott has a plan" talk probably sounds a bit weird. Well, that's because it's not what he said.
An article in Sports on June 7 quoted pitcher Luke Hochevar, drafted by the Kansas City Royals, as referring to “Scott” — Scott Boras, his agent — when in fact he used the word “God.” Here is the correct quote: “God had a plan in this, and his master plan definitely worked. It was tough through it — you go through it and you fight it — but when it all comes down to it, God has a plan for you, and he definitely worked a miracle in my case.”
Huh? I don't think the reporter could have mistaken the sound of the word "Scott" for "God"...that's a stretch. Could it be the reporter had NEVER heard someone speak about God in this way? Bingo. It's time for the newsroom types to get out of the office and expand their cocooned, small lives.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
NBA Trivia
There are two NBA teams with no foreign-born players on their roster. One is the world champion Miami Heat. Can you name the other? It will surprise you.
World Cup Update: Ghana 2, USA 1
No offense to Ghana, but if we can't beat freakin' Ghana (or anybody else for that matter), it's time to hang up the cleats.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
The Best Interview in Sports
On Tuesday to reporters, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen referred to Chicago Sun-Times columnist and Around the Horn contributor Jay Mariotti as a derogatory name for a homosexual.
Angry with a recent column by Mariotti critical of Guillen's handling of recently demoted relief pitcher Sean Tracey and upset with Mariotti with columns of the past, Guillen said to reporters when referring to Mariotti before Tuesday's game with the Cardinals, "What a piece of [expletive] he is, [expletive] fag."
"I don't have anything against those people. In my country, you call someone something like that and it is not the same as it is in this country."
Ozzie Guillen
Mariotti was covering the NBA Finals Tuesday night and was not present to hear what Guillen said.
Columnist Greg Couch of the Sun-Times wrote a column Wednesday in response, calling for commissioner Bud Selig to suspend Guillen for his use of a "hurtful homophobic" term.
Before writing the column, Couch asked Guillen for an explanation. Guillen defended his use of the term "fag" by saying this about homosexuals and the use of the word in question: "I don't have anything against those people. In my country, you call someone something like that and it is not the same as it is in this country.''
Guillen said that in his native Venezuela, that word is not a reference to a person's sexuality, but to his courage. He said he was saying that Mariotti is "not man enough to meet me and talk about [things before writing].''
Guillen also told Couch that he has gay friends, attends WNBA games, went to a Madonna concert and plans to go to the Gay Games in Chicago.
"I called that of this man [Mariotti],'' he told Couch. "I'm not trying to hurt anybody [else]."
Scott Reifert, the White Sox's vice president of communications, offered to apologize on behalf of the organization when approached by Couch.
"To anybody who was insulted or hurt by that comment ... as an organization, we'll certainly apologize," Reifert told Couch.
I guess the next time I'm accused of being homophobic, I'll tell of my experiences at WNBA games and Madonna concerts.
Angry with a recent column by Mariotti critical of Guillen's handling of recently demoted relief pitcher Sean Tracey and upset with Mariotti with columns of the past, Guillen said to reporters when referring to Mariotti before Tuesday's game with the Cardinals, "What a piece of [expletive] he is, [expletive] fag."
"I don't have anything against those people. In my country, you call someone something like that and it is not the same as it is in this country."
Ozzie Guillen
Mariotti was covering the NBA Finals Tuesday night and was not present to hear what Guillen said.
Columnist Greg Couch of the Sun-Times wrote a column Wednesday in response, calling for commissioner Bud Selig to suspend Guillen for his use of a "hurtful homophobic" term.
Before writing the column, Couch asked Guillen for an explanation. Guillen defended his use of the term "fag" by saying this about homosexuals and the use of the word in question: "I don't have anything against those people. In my country, you call someone something like that and it is not the same as it is in this country.''
Guillen said that in his native Venezuela, that word is not a reference to a person's sexuality, but to his courage. He said he was saying that Mariotti is "not man enough to meet me and talk about [things before writing].''
Guillen also told Couch that he has gay friends, attends WNBA games, went to a Madonna concert and plans to go to the Gay Games in Chicago.
"I called that of this man [Mariotti],'' he told Couch. "I'm not trying to hurt anybody [else]."
Scott Reifert, the White Sox's vice president of communications, offered to apologize on behalf of the organization when approached by Couch.
"To anybody who was insulted or hurt by that comment ... as an organization, we'll certainly apologize," Reifert told Couch.
I guess the next time I'm accused of being homophobic, I'll tell of my experiences at WNBA games and Madonna concerts.
I'm Going to Sell My "Air Rights"
A crunch on open space in many rejuvenated cities has developers courting churches with multimillion-dollar offers to buy the air above them.
"In an urban area, air rights are just as much an asset as a piece of property," said the Rev. John Buchanan, pastor of Fourth Presbyterian on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The church is working on a deal that could bring in $25 million.
From New York to Seattle, downtown congregations are striking deals worth tens of millions of dollars. Those willing to sell are often mainline Protestant churches saddled with aging buildings, growing deficits, and shrinking memberships.
A church that doesn't reach the maximum height allowed by zoning laws can sell the unused space to a developer, who can transfer that space to an adjacent building, and thus add stories to it. Churches can make millions off a "vertical asset" that would otherwise go unused.
On Manhattan's tony Park Avenue, the Byzantine-style Christ Church United Methodist is dwarfed by high-rise apartment buildings on the corner of East 60th Street. Christ Church negotiated a selling price of $430 a square foot-twice the going rate in New York's cutthroat real-estate market-for their 70,000 square feet of unused vertical space. The November deal generated $30 million for the church.
The church's pastor, the Rev. Stephen Bauman, said the money will fund ministry programs, including a public school in the South Bronx that has been "adopted" by the church.
The members of West-Park Presbyterian Church on New York's Upper West Side were offered $40 million for their crumbling building on Amsterdam Avenue, but decided to sell air rights for about $15 million. The money will fund repairs to the church.
"We wanted something more creative than finding a developer and selling [the building] to the highest bidder" and walking away, said West-Park's pastor, the Rev. Bob Brashear.
"In an urban area, air rights are just as much an asset as a piece of property," said the Rev. John Buchanan, pastor of Fourth Presbyterian on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The church is working on a deal that could bring in $25 million.
From New York to Seattle, downtown congregations are striking deals worth tens of millions of dollars. Those willing to sell are often mainline Protestant churches saddled with aging buildings, growing deficits, and shrinking memberships.
A church that doesn't reach the maximum height allowed by zoning laws can sell the unused space to a developer, who can transfer that space to an adjacent building, and thus add stories to it. Churches can make millions off a "vertical asset" that would otherwise go unused.
On Manhattan's tony Park Avenue, the Byzantine-style Christ Church United Methodist is dwarfed by high-rise apartment buildings on the corner of East 60th Street. Christ Church negotiated a selling price of $430 a square foot-twice the going rate in New York's cutthroat real-estate market-for their 70,000 square feet of unused vertical space. The November deal generated $30 million for the church.
The church's pastor, the Rev. Stephen Bauman, said the money will fund ministry programs, including a public school in the South Bronx that has been "adopted" by the church.
The members of West-Park Presbyterian Church on New York's Upper West Side were offered $40 million for their crumbling building on Amsterdam Avenue, but decided to sell air rights for about $15 million. The money will fund repairs to the church.
"We wanted something more creative than finding a developer and selling [the building] to the highest bidder" and walking away, said West-Park's pastor, the Rev. Bob Brashear.
Quote of the Day
"Just because you're a Republican doesn't mean you don't care about children." -- Actress Angelina Jolie
Whew, as a Republican father of three, that's good to know.
Whew, as a Republican father of three, that's good to know.
I'm Sick of I-Me-My-Mine Worship
This is good:
I wonder if the more recent emphasis on self in worship is one more way of expressing our autonomy and self-importance.
It runs like this: "God, I am going to worship you. I consider you worthy of my worship. God, this is your lucky day. I, this self-sufficient, independent human being, around whom all of life centers, I am going to give you some of my time. I am going to declare you worthy of my worship."
So how do we go about correcting this misunderstanding? Only by understanding that worship focuses on God and God's mission to rescue the world through Jesus Christ. In words, signs, and gestures we sing, proclaim, and enact God's mission.
Worshipping is about...Well, God. It's not about me. Someone needs to tell my worship leader.
I wonder if the more recent emphasis on self in worship is one more way of expressing our autonomy and self-importance.
It runs like this: "God, I am going to worship you. I consider you worthy of my worship. God, this is your lucky day. I, this self-sufficient, independent human being, around whom all of life centers, I am going to give you some of my time. I am going to declare you worthy of my worship."
So how do we go about correcting this misunderstanding? Only by understanding that worship focuses on God and God's mission to rescue the world through Jesus Christ. In words, signs, and gestures we sing, proclaim, and enact God's mission.
Worshipping is about...Well, God. It's not about me. Someone needs to tell my worship leader.
Monday, June 19, 2006
From "Knights" to "Champs"
Yeah, it's tough to win titles when you're recruiting kids from 62 different counties. But then again, I shouldn't complain, that would be whining. I'll put my head back in the sand.
Lexington Catholic could change its nickname from "Knights" to "Champs," and it'd be hard to argue.
Having already celebrated state titles in football and girls' basketball this school year, Lexington Catholic won the state baseball championship last night.
The Knights beat Beechwood 6-4 in the finals of the Fifth Third State Tournament in front of 2,596 fans at Applebee's Park.
"We knew in the pre-season we had a lot of work to do, but by mid-season we could tell we had the hitting, pitching and defense to win it all," said junior center fielder Ben Revere, the tournament MVP.
"It feels great to have it all come together like this."
Lexington Catholic became the third city team in four years to take home the trophy. Lexington Christian Academy won it last year and Paul Dunbar in 2003.
Lexington Catholic could change its nickname from "Knights" to "Champs," and it'd be hard to argue.
Having already celebrated state titles in football and girls' basketball this school year, Lexington Catholic won the state baseball championship last night.
The Knights beat Beechwood 6-4 in the finals of the Fifth Third State Tournament in front of 2,596 fans at Applebee's Park.
"We knew in the pre-season we had a lot of work to do, but by mid-season we could tell we had the hitting, pitching and defense to win it all," said junior center fielder Ben Revere, the tournament MVP.
"It feels great to have it all come together like this."
Lexington Catholic became the third city team in four years to take home the trophy. Lexington Christian Academy won it last year and Paul Dunbar in 2003.
Picture of the Day
Ghana's John Pantsil who plays professionally for Hapoel Tel Aviv, keeps his pre-World-Cup promise, waving an Israeli flag after his team's second goal against the Czech Republic.
"God Creates Us With Different Gifts"
This is interesting:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newly elected leader of the U.S. Episcopal Church Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said on Monday she believed homosexuality was no sin and homosexuals were created by God to love people of the same gender.
Jefferts Schori, bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, was elected on Sunday as the first woman leader of the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church. the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. She will formally take office later this year.
Interviewed on CNN, Jefferts Schori was asked if it was a sin to be homosexual.
"I don't believe so. I believe that God creates us with different gifts. Each one of us comes into this world with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us joy and allow us to bless the world around us," she said.
"Some people come into this world with affections ordered toward other people of the same gender and some people come into this world with affections directed at people of the other gender."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newly elected leader of the U.S. Episcopal Church Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said on Monday she believed homosexuality was no sin and homosexuals were created by God to love people of the same gender.
Jefferts Schori, bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, was elected on Sunday as the first woman leader of the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church. the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. She will formally take office later this year.
Interviewed on CNN, Jefferts Schori was asked if it was a sin to be homosexual.
"I don't believe so. I believe that God creates us with different gifts. Each one of us comes into this world with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us joy and allow us to bless the world around us," she said.
"Some people come into this world with affections ordered toward other people of the same gender and some people come into this world with affections directed at people of the other gender."
Friday, June 16, 2006
The Apple Sometimes Falls Faaaaaaar From The Tree
The headline of a recent Middle East Media Research Institute translation reads, "Khomeini Calls for Foreign Military Intervention in Iran." No, not that Khomeini. Ayatollah Hussein Khomeini, the grandson of the Iranian Islamic revolution's founding father, raised eyebrows several years ago by saying he wanted to see the mullahs deposed. Now he is making the case anew, arguing, during a recent interview with the Dubai-based Al Arabiya television news network's website, that "freedom must come to Iran in any possible way, whether through internal or external developments."
His comments have generated a flurry of interest, probably thanks to their shock value. But, for my money, the most noteworthy part of the interview came when Khomeini, who still lives in Iran, explained why he favored American intervention: "If you were a prisoner, what would you do? I want someone to break the prison." Whether or not he intended it this way, Khomeini was offering a succinct, and compelling, defense of idealism in U.S. foreign policy. To be sure, Khomeini is probably wrong to think that an American invasion of Iran is a good idea; it almost certainly is not. (I'll leave aside the question of whether we might have to bomb the country to destroy its nuclear program.) But Khomeini is right to insist that Americans--in thinking through the role we should play in the world--put ourselves in the shoes of those living under tyrannies and ask whether we, if we were living under an oppressive regime, would want a global hegemon to take strong steps to hasten the day of our liberation.
His comments have generated a flurry of interest, probably thanks to their shock value. But, for my money, the most noteworthy part of the interview came when Khomeini, who still lives in Iran, explained why he favored American intervention: "If you were a prisoner, what would you do? I want someone to break the prison." Whether or not he intended it this way, Khomeini was offering a succinct, and compelling, defense of idealism in U.S. foreign policy. To be sure, Khomeini is probably wrong to think that an American invasion of Iran is a good idea; it almost certainly is not. (I'll leave aside the question of whether we might have to bomb the country to destroy its nuclear program.) But Khomeini is right to insist that Americans--in thinking through the role we should play in the world--put ourselves in the shoes of those living under tyrannies and ask whether we, if we were living under an oppressive regime, would want a global hegemon to take strong steps to hasten the day of our liberation.
The Tony Dungy Story
Amazing story.
But this paragraph is very sad:
Perhaps Dungy's only real regret as a father is that he hasn't been there for his children as much as his late parents were for theirs. As well as Tony can remember, Wilbur and Cleomae Dungy, both teachers, attended every event, every game when he was growing up in Jackson, Mich., and were always home on weekends. Tony's career has kept him from doing the same. Still, he's always prioritized his role as a husband and father ahead of his job and encourages -- much the same way mentors Chuck Noll and Dennis Green did with their teams -- his players and staff to do the same.
The bolded line is not really true, though, and Tony - in his more personal moments - would probably acknowledge that. How can your kids and wife be your priority when you're gone for much of the year or holed up in your office studying game film for 15 hours a day. It's an easy trap for all of us to fall into, but we must avoid at all costs.
It always comes down to what's more important: your career success and the money and the ego stroking and the glory OR the daily, monotonous, hard, and wonderfully satisfying routine of the every day father and mother. The latter was good enough for Tony's parents and my parents...and it will have to be good enough for me.
But this paragraph is very sad:
Perhaps Dungy's only real regret as a father is that he hasn't been there for his children as much as his late parents were for theirs. As well as Tony can remember, Wilbur and Cleomae Dungy, both teachers, attended every event, every game when he was growing up in Jackson, Mich., and were always home on weekends. Tony's career has kept him from doing the same. Still, he's always prioritized his role as a husband and father ahead of his job and encourages -- much the same way mentors Chuck Noll and Dennis Green did with their teams -- his players and staff to do the same.
The bolded line is not really true, though, and Tony - in his more personal moments - would probably acknowledge that. How can your kids and wife be your priority when you're gone for much of the year or holed up in your office studying game film for 15 hours a day. It's an easy trap for all of us to fall into, but we must avoid at all costs.
It always comes down to what's more important: your career success and the money and the ego stroking and the glory OR the daily, monotonous, hard, and wonderfully satisfying routine of the every day father and mother. The latter was good enough for Tony's parents and my parents...and it will have to be good enough for me.
Just Shut Up
More ink equals more blood, claim two economists who say that newspaper coverage of terrorist incidents leads directly to more attacks.
It's a macabre example of win-win in what economists call a "common-interest game," say Bruno S. Frey of the University of Zurich and Dominic Rohner of Cambridge University.
"Both the media and terrorists benefit from terrorist incidents," their study contends. Terrorists get free publicity for themselves and their cause. The media, meanwhile, make money "as reports of terror attacks increase newspaper sales and the number of television viewers."
The researchers counted direct references to terrorism between 1998 and 2005 in the New York Times and Neue Zuercher Zeitung, a respected Swiss newspaper. They also collected data on terrorist attacks around the world during that period. Using a statistical procedure called the Granger Causality Test, they attempted to determine whether more coverage directly led to more attacks.
The results, they said, were unequivocal: Coverage caused more attacks, and attacks caused more coverage -- a mutually beneficial spiral of death that they say has increased because of a heightened interest in terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001.
One partial solution: Deny groups publicity by not publicly naming the attackers, Frey said. But won't they become known anyway through informal channels such as the Internet?
Not necessarily, Frey said. "Many experiences show us that in virtually all cases several groups claimed responsibility for a particular terrorist act. I would like the same rule that obtains within a country: Nobody can be called a criminal -- in our case a terrorist -- if this has not been established by a court of law."
It's a macabre example of win-win in what economists call a "common-interest game," say Bruno S. Frey of the University of Zurich and Dominic Rohner of Cambridge University.
"Both the media and terrorists benefit from terrorist incidents," their study contends. Terrorists get free publicity for themselves and their cause. The media, meanwhile, make money "as reports of terror attacks increase newspaper sales and the number of television viewers."
The researchers counted direct references to terrorism between 1998 and 2005 in the New York Times and Neue Zuercher Zeitung, a respected Swiss newspaper. They also collected data on terrorist attacks around the world during that period. Using a statistical procedure called the Granger Causality Test, they attempted to determine whether more coverage directly led to more attacks.
The results, they said, were unequivocal: Coverage caused more attacks, and attacks caused more coverage -- a mutually beneficial spiral of death that they say has increased because of a heightened interest in terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001.
One partial solution: Deny groups publicity by not publicly naming the attackers, Frey said. But won't they become known anyway through informal channels such as the Internet?
Not necessarily, Frey said. "Many experiences show us that in virtually all cases several groups claimed responsibility for a particular terrorist act. I would like the same rule that obtains within a country: Nobody can be called a criminal -- in our case a terrorist -- if this has not been established by a court of law."
Quote of the Day
"Let us resolve to deal with the world as it is but never to accept that we are powerless to make it better than it is - not perfect, but better. America will lead the cause of freedom in our world not because we think ourselves perfect. To the contrary, we cherish democracy and champion its ideals because we know we are not perfect." -- Secretary of State Condi Rice, to the Southern Baptist Association
93-6!
The Senate rejected a call for the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq by year's end on Thursday as Congress erupted in impassioned, election-year debate over a conflict that now has claimed the lives of 2,500 American troops.
The vote was 93-6 to shelve the proposal, which would have allowed "only forces that are critical to completing the mission of standing up Iraqi security forces" to remain in 2007.
93-6! So what is all of the hubbub about? It appears that the "bring them home" crowd that makes so much noise is just that...all noise.
The vote was 93-6 to shelve the proposal, which would have allowed "only forces that are critical to completing the mission of standing up Iraqi security forces" to remain in 2007.
93-6! So what is all of the hubbub about? It appears that the "bring them home" crowd that makes so much noise is just that...all noise.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Nice Schools
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- New York may be a city of incessant cell phone talkers, but students vowed on Wednesday they would hit the "off" button during classes as they battled a ban on cell phones in schools.
Speaking at a city council hearing where lawmakers introduced a bill aimed at overriding a ban on cell phones enforced under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, high school students and their parents spoke out against the unusually stringent anti-cell phone policy.
"I feel mature enough to be able to turn off my cell phone in class," said LaGuardia High School student Jenna Gogan, 16. "This is about students' safety, because, especially in New York City, many parents need to feel reassured they can contact their kids going to and from school."
Dissent over the ban in New York escalated recently when Bloomberg introduced metal scanners and random checks at some of the city's 1,408 public high schools. The new scanners used to protect the city's 1.1 million students had led to the confiscation of more than 3,000 cell phones and 36 weapons, mostly knives and razor blades.
Ok, if your school needs metal scanners and random checks, the problem of teenagers with cell phones should probably be waaaay down on the list of pressing issues.
Speaking at a city council hearing where lawmakers introduced a bill aimed at overriding a ban on cell phones enforced under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, high school students and their parents spoke out against the unusually stringent anti-cell phone policy.
"I feel mature enough to be able to turn off my cell phone in class," said LaGuardia High School student Jenna Gogan, 16. "This is about students' safety, because, especially in New York City, many parents need to feel reassured they can contact their kids going to and from school."
Dissent over the ban in New York escalated recently when Bloomberg introduced metal scanners and random checks at some of the city's 1,408 public high schools. The new scanners used to protect the city's 1.1 million students had led to the confiscation of more than 3,000 cell phones and 36 weapons, mostly knives and razor blades.
Ok, if your school needs metal scanners and random checks, the problem of teenagers with cell phones should probably be waaaay down on the list of pressing issues.
The Defeatist Terrorists
This document, if correctly translated, is amazing. Apparently the terrorists like our chances of winning. Someone needs to tell the Dems.
Dear God, Make It Stop!!!!
So Mel Gibson makes a great film ("The Passion of the Christ") and lots of money. What happens next? You guessed it...a bad knock off. But this time the story won't be put into the hands of Mel Gibson. This time it's Tim LaHaye's baby.
Using the Bible for its source material, “Resurrection” will tell the story of Jesus Christ beginning the day he died on the cross and ending about 40 days later with his ascension into heaven. According to insiders, Sony’s mid-budget Screen Gems division commissioned a script several months ago from Lionel Chetwynd, the veteran screenwriter, producer and director whose credits include the feature “The Hanoi Hilton” and the Emmy-nominated TV movie “Ike: Countdown to D-Day.”
Set to produce is Tim LaHaye, co-author of the best-selling “Left Behind” series of books. A popular minister and frequent TV news pundit, “Resurrection” will mark LaHaye’s first foray into mainstream filmmaking.
This is the best Sony could do?
Using the Bible for its source material, “Resurrection” will tell the story of Jesus Christ beginning the day he died on the cross and ending about 40 days later with his ascension into heaven. According to insiders, Sony’s mid-budget Screen Gems division commissioned a script several months ago from Lionel Chetwynd, the veteran screenwriter, producer and director whose credits include the feature “The Hanoi Hilton” and the Emmy-nominated TV movie “Ike: Countdown to D-Day.”
Set to produce is Tim LaHaye, co-author of the best-selling “Left Behind” series of books. A popular minister and frequent TV news pundit, “Resurrection” will mark LaHaye’s first foray into mainstream filmmaking.
This is the best Sony could do?
Is This the Equivalent of a Juiced Baseball?
In the opening match of soccer's World Cup Friday, German midfielder Torsten Frings scored an amazing goal from 40 yards out. The ball started off straight and then tailed sharply to the right in the last 10 yards or so. It was an unstoppable shot, but with a different ball it might have been a simple save.
A scientist has explained why a new ball being used in this year's World Cup is frustrating goalies.
The new Adidas Teamgeist football, as it is called, has 14 panels instead of the 26 or 32 that traditionally create the hexagonal pattern.
Fewer panels means fewer seams, which will make the ball behave more like a baseball, says Ken Bray, a sports scientist at the University of Bath in the UK.
Complex whirls of air cause a spinning ball to drift toward the side that's spinning away from the ball's direction of movement [learn why]. A ball that's not spinning can bounce around unpredictably. Pitchers rely on this physics when throwing knuckleballs.
A good knuckleball is crazy because the ball rotates lazily in the air and the seams disrupt the air flow around the ball at certain points on the surface, Bray said.
"With a very low spin rate, which occasionally happens in football, the panel pattern can have a big influence on the trajectory of the ball and make it more unpredictable for a goalkeeper," Bray said last week.
Bray suggests one way to watch for the effect on TV.
"Watch the slow motion replays to spot the rare occasions where the ball produces little or no rotation and where goalkeepers will frantically attempt to keep up with the ball’s chaotic flight path," he said.
A scientist has explained why a new ball being used in this year's World Cup is frustrating goalies.
The new Adidas Teamgeist football, as it is called, has 14 panels instead of the 26 or 32 that traditionally create the hexagonal pattern.
Fewer panels means fewer seams, which will make the ball behave more like a baseball, says Ken Bray, a sports scientist at the University of Bath in the UK.
Complex whirls of air cause a spinning ball to drift toward the side that's spinning away from the ball's direction of movement [learn why]. A ball that's not spinning can bounce around unpredictably. Pitchers rely on this physics when throwing knuckleballs.
A good knuckleball is crazy because the ball rotates lazily in the air and the seams disrupt the air flow around the ball at certain points on the surface, Bray said.
"With a very low spin rate, which occasionally happens in football, the panel pattern can have a big influence on the trajectory of the ball and make it more unpredictable for a goalkeeper," Bray said last week.
Bray suggests one way to watch for the effect on TV.
"Watch the slow motion replays to spot the rare occasions where the ball produces little or no rotation and where goalkeepers will frantically attempt to keep up with the ball’s chaotic flight path," he said.
Quote of the Day
"I now know that if you describe things as better as they are, you are considered to be romantic; if you describe things as worse than they are, you are called a realist; and if you describe things exactly as they are, you are called a satirist." -- Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant
Darth Vader: Rightwing or Leftwing?
Jonah Goldberg says left:
Darth Vader grew up poor and oppressed — a slave even! He was saved by a progressive organization which took him in out of a mixture of pity and affirmative action. He was admitted thanks to a sort of one-drop-rule quota (his only qualification is that he had the right midichlorian mix in his blood). The organization was comprised of nature-worshipping technocrats who believed that there their Gnostic insight into the nature of the universe gave them the unique privilege to fix everything they laid their eyes on. Their new age faith involved a lot of talk about getting in touch with your feelings and distrusting technology (but Darth never appreciated the hypocrisy of his own limousine liberal bionics). Corrupted by power and other selfish motives, young Darth — then going by his slave name Anakin — embraced the Empire which sought to overturn the planet's-rights system of the republic in favor of centralized planning. He then dedicated most of his career to enforcing a classically progressive, top-down socialism of the "one-best way," breaking contracts with mining companies when it suited him. Late in life, when he realized the unintended consequences of central planning, he recanted. So maybe at the very end he was a neocon of sorts. But by then he changed his name back to Anakin.
Darth Vader grew up poor and oppressed — a slave even! He was saved by a progressive organization which took him in out of a mixture of pity and affirmative action. He was admitted thanks to a sort of one-drop-rule quota (his only qualification is that he had the right midichlorian mix in his blood). The organization was comprised of nature-worshipping technocrats who believed that there their Gnostic insight into the nature of the universe gave them the unique privilege to fix everything they laid their eyes on. Their new age faith involved a lot of talk about getting in touch with your feelings and distrusting technology (but Darth never appreciated the hypocrisy of his own limousine liberal bionics). Corrupted by power and other selfish motives, young Darth — then going by his slave name Anakin — embraced the Empire which sought to overturn the planet's-rights system of the republic in favor of centralized planning. He then dedicated most of his career to enforcing a classically progressive, top-down socialism of the "one-best way," breaking contracts with mining companies when it suited him. Late in life, when he realized the unintended consequences of central planning, he recanted. So maybe at the very end he was a neocon of sorts. But by then he changed his name back to Anakin.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
"Business Is Not A Zero Sum Game"
John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, and a former Leftie:
"At the time I started my business, the Left had taught me that business and capitalism were based on exploitation: exploitation of consumers, workers, society, and the environment. I believed that "profit" was a necessary evil at best, and certainly not a desirable goal for society as a whole. However, becoming an entrepreneur completely changed my life. Everything I believed about business was proven to be wrong.
The most important thing I learned about business in my first year was that business wasn't based on exploitation or coercion at all. Instead I realized that business is based on voluntary cooperation. No one is forced to trade with a business; customers have competitive alternatives in the market place; employees have competitive alternatives for their labor; investors have different alternatives and places to invest their capital. Investors, labor, management, suppliers — they all need to cooperate to create value for their customers. If they do, then any realized profit can be divided amongst the creators of the value through competitive market dynamics.
In other words, business is not a zero-sum game with a winner and loser. It is a win, win, win, win game — and I really like that. However, I discovered despite my idealism that our customers thought our prices were too high, our employees thought they were underpaid, the vendors would not give us large discounts, the community was forever clamoring for donations, and the government was slapping us with endless fees, licenses, fines, and taxes.
Were we profitable? Not at first. Safer Way managed to lose half of its capital in the first year — $23,000. Despite the loss, we were still accused of exploiting our customers with high prices and our employees with low wages. The investors weren't making a profit and we had no money to donate. Plus, with our losses, we paid no taxes. I had somehow joined the "dark side" — I was now one of the bad guys. According to the perspective of the Left, I had become a greedy and selfish businessman. At this point, I rationally chose to abandon the leftist philosophy of my youth, because it no longer adequately explained how the world really worked."
"At the time I started my business, the Left had taught me that business and capitalism were based on exploitation: exploitation of consumers, workers, society, and the environment. I believed that "profit" was a necessary evil at best, and certainly not a desirable goal for society as a whole. However, becoming an entrepreneur completely changed my life. Everything I believed about business was proven to be wrong.
The most important thing I learned about business in my first year was that business wasn't based on exploitation or coercion at all. Instead I realized that business is based on voluntary cooperation. No one is forced to trade with a business; customers have competitive alternatives in the market place; employees have competitive alternatives for their labor; investors have different alternatives and places to invest their capital. Investors, labor, management, suppliers — they all need to cooperate to create value for their customers. If they do, then any realized profit can be divided amongst the creators of the value through competitive market dynamics.
In other words, business is not a zero-sum game with a winner and loser. It is a win, win, win, win game — and I really like that. However, I discovered despite my idealism that our customers thought our prices were too high, our employees thought they were underpaid, the vendors would not give us large discounts, the community was forever clamoring for donations, and the government was slapping us with endless fees, licenses, fines, and taxes.
Were we profitable? Not at first. Safer Way managed to lose half of its capital in the first year — $23,000. Despite the loss, we were still accused of exploiting our customers with high prices and our employees with low wages. The investors weren't making a profit and we had no money to donate. Plus, with our losses, we paid no taxes. I had somehow joined the "dark side" — I was now one of the bad guys. According to the perspective of the Left, I had become a greedy and selfish businessman. At this point, I rationally chose to abandon the leftist philosophy of my youth, because it no longer adequately explained how the world really worked."
Life Is Not Fair
PHOENIX (AP) -- The Arizona Diamondbacks decided Tuesday they would rather eat the remaining $22 million of Russ Ortiz's contract than keep him on their roster.
Ortiz is believed to be the most expensive player to be cut loose in baseball history.
That would be $22 million to do absolutely nothing.
Ortiz is believed to be the most expensive player to be cut loose in baseball history.
That would be $22 million to do absolutely nothing.
George Foster Is Making Sense
From Ron Jackson, Dayton Daily News:
"I would move him to first base," Foster said. "I was with Ken Sr. recently and I know he's discussed it with Junior, but it's an ego thing with him and he doesn't want to go to left or right. That would save his legs, but he's out to prove something; that he can win another Gold Glove in center."
"But there's lot of wear and tear involved with playing center or shortstop. They're demanding positions along with catcher. Junior's a player and he can play the angles and make the adjustment to either corner outfield or first base. As long as you have Junior at first, for instance, you don't need an offensive player in center. It would prolong Junior's career."
Foster helped to power the Big Red Machine teams of the 1970s. He said players were unselfish in that era.
"The beauty of the Big Red Machine was the chemistry," Foster said. "Players made switches for the good of the team or took extra batting practice. You don't see that in today's game as much. Junior and Adam Dunn should take extra BP to learn to break the defensive shift they face."
"I would move him to first base," Foster said. "I was with Ken Sr. recently and I know he's discussed it with Junior, but it's an ego thing with him and he doesn't want to go to left or right. That would save his legs, but he's out to prove something; that he can win another Gold Glove in center."
"But there's lot of wear and tear involved with playing center or shortstop. They're demanding positions along with catcher. Junior's a player and he can play the angles and make the adjustment to either corner outfield or first base. As long as you have Junior at first, for instance, you don't need an offensive player in center. It would prolong Junior's career."
Foster helped to power the Big Red Machine teams of the 1970s. He said players were unselfish in that era.
"The beauty of the Big Red Machine was the chemistry," Foster said. "Players made switches for the good of the team or took extra batting practice. You don't see that in today's game as much. Junior and Adam Dunn should take extra BP to learn to break the defensive shift they face."
If Only They Would Control The Spending
Aided by surging tax receipts, President Bush may make good on his pledge to cut the deficit in half in 2006 — three years early.
Tax revenues are running $176 billion, or 12.9%, over last year, the Treasury Department said Monday. The Congressional Budget Office said receipts have risen faster over the first eight months of fiscal '06 than in any other such period over the past 25 years — except for last year's 15.5% jump.
The 2006 deficit through May was $227 billion, down from $273 billion at this time last year. Spending is up $130 billion, or 7.9%.
The CBO forecast in May that the 2006 deficit could fall as low as $300 billion. Michael Englund, chief economist of Action Economics, has long expected a deficit of about $270 billion this year. Now he thinks there's a chance the "remarkable strength in receipts" will push the deficit even lower.
With the economy topping $13 trillion this year, a $270 billion deficit would equal less than 2.1% of GDP, easily beating the president's 2.25% goal. Bush made his vow when the White House had a dour 2004 deficit forecast of 4.5% of GDP, or $521 billion. The actual '04 deficit came in at $412 billion, or 3.5% of GDP, before falling to $318 billion, or 2.6% of GDP, in 2005.
Tax revenues are running $176 billion, or 12.9%, over last year, the Treasury Department said Monday. The Congressional Budget Office said receipts have risen faster over the first eight months of fiscal '06 than in any other such period over the past 25 years — except for last year's 15.5% jump.
The 2006 deficit through May was $227 billion, down from $273 billion at this time last year. Spending is up $130 billion, or 7.9%.
The CBO forecast in May that the 2006 deficit could fall as low as $300 billion. Michael Englund, chief economist of Action Economics, has long expected a deficit of about $270 billion this year. Now he thinks there's a chance the "remarkable strength in receipts" will push the deficit even lower.
With the economy topping $13 trillion this year, a $270 billion deficit would equal less than 2.1% of GDP, easily beating the president's 2.25% goal. Bush made his vow when the White House had a dour 2004 deficit forecast of 4.5% of GDP, or $521 billion. The actual '04 deficit came in at $412 billion, or 3.5% of GDP, before falling to $318 billion, or 2.6% of GDP, in 2005.
Monday, June 12, 2006
I Am Shocked! Shocked!
COMPTON, Calif. (AP) — The son of the late rapper Eazy-E was arrested for investigation of possessing a concealed weapon, authorities said Sunday.
Eric Wright Jr. — who goes by the name Lil' Eazy-E in his own recently launched hip-hop career — is the firstborn son of Eazy-E, a founding member of the pioneering gangster rap group N.W.A. who died of AIDS in 1995.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies pulled over Wright, 22, for a traffic violation near Compton on Saturday night, Lt. Michael Alerich said.
"Mr. Wright was in possession of a firearm and he was arrested," Alerich said. "Two other guys in the car were also arrested, one for possession of a firearm and the other for a probation violation."
Earlier this year, Wright released his first album, Prince of Compton.
Eric Wright Jr. — who goes by the name Lil' Eazy-E in his own recently launched hip-hop career — is the firstborn son of Eazy-E, a founding member of the pioneering gangster rap group N.W.A. who died of AIDS in 1995.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies pulled over Wright, 22, for a traffic violation near Compton on Saturday night, Lt. Michael Alerich said.
"Mr. Wright was in possession of a firearm and he was arrested," Alerich said. "Two other guys in the car were also arrested, one for possession of a firearm and the other for a probation violation."
Earlier this year, Wright released his first album, Prince of Compton.
Old School Youth Ministry
Now, don’t jump to conclusions. I haven’t uncovered any evidence that St. Ambrose led teens on ski trips in the nearby Alps. Nor is there anything to suggest that St. Basil sponsored junior-high dances in Pontus. (There’s not even a hint of a pizza party.) In fact, if you check all the documentary evidence from all the ancient patriarchates of the East and the West, you won’t find a single bulletin announcement for a single parish youth group.
Yet the Fathers had enormous success in youth and young-adult ministry. Many of the early martyrs were teens, as were many of the Christians who took to the desert for the solitary life. There’s ample evidence that a disproportionate number of conversions, too, came from the young and youngish age groups.
How did the Fathers do it?
They made wild promises.
They promised young people great things, like persecution, lower social status, public ridicule, severely limited employment opportunities, frequent fasting, a high risk of jail and torture, and maybe, just maybe, an early, violent death at the hands of their pagan rulers.
What's funny is that this is exactly what military recruiters typically offer: danger, high risk, maybe even death. But it works. Why? Because man is created with an inborn belief in a higher purpose, a higher cause, a calling. The Church has this bass akwards now. They try to motive youth with video games and candy...that's foolish.
Yet the Fathers had enormous success in youth and young-adult ministry. Many of the early martyrs were teens, as were many of the Christians who took to the desert for the solitary life. There’s ample evidence that a disproportionate number of conversions, too, came from the young and youngish age groups.
How did the Fathers do it?
They made wild promises.
They promised young people great things, like persecution, lower social status, public ridicule, severely limited employment opportunities, frequent fasting, a high risk of jail and torture, and maybe, just maybe, an early, violent death at the hands of their pagan rulers.
What's funny is that this is exactly what military recruiters typically offer: danger, high risk, maybe even death. But it works. Why? Because man is created with an inborn belief in a higher purpose, a higher cause, a calling. The Church has this bass akwards now. They try to motive youth with video games and candy...that's foolish.
Friday, June 09, 2006
Natural Tooth Loss By State
#1 West Virginia 42.8%
#2 Kentucky 38.1%
#3 Tennessee 32.2%
#4 Alabama 31.9%
#5 Louisiana 31.3%
At least we're not #1.
#2 Kentucky 38.1%
#3 Tennessee 32.2%
#4 Alabama 31.9%
#5 Louisiana 31.3%
At least we're not #1.
Tom Delay Speaks the Truth
The point is, we disagree. On first principles, Mr. Speaker, we disagree. And so we debate, often loudly, and often in vain, to convince our opponents and the American people of our point of view.
We debate here on the House floor, we debate in committees, we debate on television and on radio and on the Internet and in the newspapers and then every two years, we have a huge debate. And then in November, we see who won. That is not rancor, that is democracy.
You show me a nation without partisanship, and I'll show you a tyranny. For all its faults, it is partisanship, based on core principles, that clarifies our debates, that prevents one party from straying too far from the mainstream, and that constantly refreshes our politics with new ideas and new leaders.
Indeed, whatever role partisanship may have played in my own retirement today or in the unfriendliness heaped upon other leaders in other times, Republican or Democrat, however unjust, all we can say is that partisanship is the worst means of settling fundamental political differences -- except for all the others.
Now, politics demands compromise. And Mr. Speaker, and even the most partisan among us have to understand that, but we must never forget that compromise and bipartisanship are means, not ends, and are properly employed only in the service of higher principles.
...It is not the principled partisan, however obnoxious he may seem to his opponents, who degrades our public debate, but the preening, self-styled statesman who elevates compromise to a first principle .
For the true statesman, Mr. Speaker, we are not defined by what they compromise, but by what they don't.
We debate here on the House floor, we debate in committees, we debate on television and on radio and on the Internet and in the newspapers and then every two years, we have a huge debate. And then in November, we see who won. That is not rancor, that is democracy.
You show me a nation without partisanship, and I'll show you a tyranny. For all its faults, it is partisanship, based on core principles, that clarifies our debates, that prevents one party from straying too far from the mainstream, and that constantly refreshes our politics with new ideas and new leaders.
Indeed, whatever role partisanship may have played in my own retirement today or in the unfriendliness heaped upon other leaders in other times, Republican or Democrat, however unjust, all we can say is that partisanship is the worst means of settling fundamental political differences -- except for all the others.
Now, politics demands compromise. And Mr. Speaker, and even the most partisan among us have to understand that, but we must never forget that compromise and bipartisanship are means, not ends, and are properly employed only in the service of higher principles.
...It is not the principled partisan, however obnoxious he may seem to his opponents, who degrades our public debate, but the preening, self-styled statesman who elevates compromise to a first principle .
For the true statesman, Mr. Speaker, we are not defined by what they compromise, but by what they don't.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Great Story from the Rocket's Trip to Lexington
The very sight of Clemens on a Class A mound for the national anthem, flanked by the hokey-charming trappings of minor-league ball -- big-headed mascots and a tiny Little Leaguer -- was the stuff of scrapbooks. But it might not have been the nicest sight of the week for the Legends.
They piled off a bus after a weekend road trip to Hagerstown, Md., at 3 Monday morning and walked into Christmas in June. While they were gone Rocket had remodeled their clubhouse, spending $7,000 on plasma televisions, new couches and other touches. He went shopping Sunday and had a crew get everything installed that night, before the Legends came dragging home.
"Everyone was cranky, yelling at each other after trying to sleep in the coffins on the bus," shortstop Tommy Manzella said. "To have someone so nice to do something like that is amazing.
"We're far from the big leagues, but in his mind we're the same guys as he is: dedicating our lives to baseball. He respects that."
The Legend Clemens likes most, of course, is his 19-year-old son, Koby, who played third base in a priceless family moment. Clemens' two other sons served as bat boys, but it was Koby who supplied a comical pep talk to pops before his final inning of work.
Roger figured Koby was going to give him a scouting report on the next Lake County hitter. Wrong. His oldest boy pointed out that dad had four strikeouts to that point and needed to bear down and deliver a classic minor-league freebie.
"He told me, 'One more punchout and everyone in the stadium gets wiper fluid,' " Roger said. " … He's a funny guy, isn't he?"
The funny guy apparently knows which buttons to push. Clemens punched out not one but two Captains to close his night's work.
"Shoulda told you that in the first inning," Koby chirped to his dad coming off the field.
They piled off a bus after a weekend road trip to Hagerstown, Md., at 3 Monday morning and walked into Christmas in June. While they were gone Rocket had remodeled their clubhouse, spending $7,000 on plasma televisions, new couches and other touches. He went shopping Sunday and had a crew get everything installed that night, before the Legends came dragging home.
"Everyone was cranky, yelling at each other after trying to sleep in the coffins on the bus," shortstop Tommy Manzella said. "To have someone so nice to do something like that is amazing.
"We're far from the big leagues, but in his mind we're the same guys as he is: dedicating our lives to baseball. He respects that."
The Legend Clemens likes most, of course, is his 19-year-old son, Koby, who played third base in a priceless family moment. Clemens' two other sons served as bat boys, but it was Koby who supplied a comical pep talk to pops before his final inning of work.
Roger figured Koby was going to give him a scouting report on the next Lake County hitter. Wrong. His oldest boy pointed out that dad had four strikeouts to that point and needed to bear down and deliver a classic minor-league freebie.
"He told me, 'One more punchout and everyone in the stadium gets wiper fluid,' " Roger said. " … He's a funny guy, isn't he?"
The funny guy apparently knows which buttons to push. Clemens punched out not one but two Captains to close his night's work.
"Shoulda told you that in the first inning," Koby chirped to his dad coming off the field.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Quote of the Day
"I think that it is perfectly fitting for us to use the United States Constitution, a document that is dedicated to the preservation of our inalienable rights, to tell a certain specific group of people what they cannot do, rather than tell the government what it cannot do. We don't need tax reform. We don't need an end to earmark pork spending in Congress. We don't need smaller government and school choice. We don't need real reform that would put medical care back into the competitive marketplace. We need none of those things. All is fine! What we need is a Constitutional Amendment that will keep two people who love each other, but who we don't consider to be normal - not by our standards anyway - to marry. I know I'll sleep better tonight." -- Neal Boortz
I'm sort of with Neal on this one. Concentrate on other matters. The traditional family unit is dead and a Constitutional amendment won't save it.
I'm sort of with Neal on this one. Concentrate on other matters. The traditional family unit is dead and a Constitutional amendment won't save it.
The Greatest Name In Sports?
Tennessee reserve quarterback Jim Bob Cooter, a fan favorite and one of the brightest players on the team, has been suspended indefinitely after his arrest early Saturday morning on a drunken driving charge near campus. Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said Cooter, a fifth-year senior, would miss the Sept. 2 opener against California. -- The Tennessean
Where Does The Line Form?
This is atrocious behavior, but would you let yourself be verbally humiliated for $61 million? I would. You could call me everything but a child of God.
Two Lebanese-American FedEx Ground drivers were awarded $61 million in punitive and compensatory damages after an Alameda County Superior Court jury found the company and a manager liable for ethnic discrimination and harassment, according to the Dolan Law Firm, which represented the plaintiffs.
On May 24, the drivers, Edgar Rizkallah and Kamil Issa, were awarded $11 million in emotional distress compensatory damages after their lawyer demonstrated during trial that the two men had been victims of ongoing harassment.
Their manager, Stacey Shoun, had allegedly taunted them with racial epithets, calling the two men "camel jockeys,'' "terrorists,'' "sand niggers'' and other ethnic slurs.
The $50 million award came Friday in the second phase of the trial and was based on a finding that FedEx Ground and Shoun acted with oppression and malice in the treatment of the two plaintiffs, according to attorney Christopher Dolan of the Dolan Law Firm.
The jury held Shoun personally liable for $1 million in emotional distress damages and $5,600 in punitive damages.
According to Dolan, evidence presented in the trial showed that the plaintiffs had reported the harassment to the company and that FedEx Ground failed to prevent or correct the problem. The company had also failed to provide managers with anti-discrimination training before and after complaints were filed.
Two Lebanese-American FedEx Ground drivers were awarded $61 million in punitive and compensatory damages after an Alameda County Superior Court jury found the company and a manager liable for ethnic discrimination and harassment, according to the Dolan Law Firm, which represented the plaintiffs.
On May 24, the drivers, Edgar Rizkallah and Kamil Issa, were awarded $11 million in emotional distress compensatory damages after their lawyer demonstrated during trial that the two men had been victims of ongoing harassment.
Their manager, Stacey Shoun, had allegedly taunted them with racial epithets, calling the two men "camel jockeys,'' "terrorists,'' "sand niggers'' and other ethnic slurs.
The $50 million award came Friday in the second phase of the trial and was based on a finding that FedEx Ground and Shoun acted with oppression and malice in the treatment of the two plaintiffs, according to attorney Christopher Dolan of the Dolan Law Firm.
The jury held Shoun personally liable for $1 million in emotional distress damages and $5,600 in punitive damages.
According to Dolan, evidence presented in the trial showed that the plaintiffs had reported the harassment to the company and that FedEx Ground failed to prevent or correct the problem. The company had also failed to provide managers with anti-discrimination training before and after complaints were filed.
Very Bad News
NAIROBI, Kenya, June 5 — Islamic militias declared victory today over Somalia's traditional warlords in the battle for control of Mogadishu, quelling months of fierce fighting in the lawless capital but raising new questions about whether this regime, which American officials have accused of sheltering terrorists, will steer the country down an extremist path.
Holy Rondo!
Scouts say his weaknesses are shooting and strength.
But in workouts thus far for Phoenix, Houston, Boston, Washington, Toronto, Minnesota and Sacramento, his shooting was crisp. He weighed 167 pounds at Kentucky. He weighs 175 pounds now.
"When I started this training," Rondo said, "I could lift 185 pounds about twice. Now I can do it seven or eight times."
He has used his predraft time to concentrate on his weaknesses. Some draft boards have him rated as high as No. 4.
But in workouts thus far for Phoenix, Houston, Boston, Washington, Toronto, Minnesota and Sacramento, his shooting was crisp. He weighed 167 pounds at Kentucky. He weighs 175 pounds now.
"When I started this training," Rondo said, "I could lift 185 pounds about twice. Now I can do it seven or eight times."
He has used his predraft time to concentrate on his weaknesses. Some draft boards have him rated as high as No. 4.
Only Nike
When Camille Walters plays soccer, her normally brown eyes have a spooky red tint. That's because the 15-year-old wears tinted contact lenses that block certain wavelengths of light and help athletes see better.
Oh, and they look cool, too.
...The lens -- large enough to extend a ring around the iris -- comes in two colors: amber and grey-green.
The amber lens is for fast-moving ball sports, such as tennis, baseball, football or soccer. Grey-green is better for blocking glare for runners or helping a golfer read the contour of the ground.
Do they really help athletes see better? Probably as much as Phil Knight's shoes help you jump higher.
Oh, and they look cool, too.
...The lens -- large enough to extend a ring around the iris -- comes in two colors: amber and grey-green.
The amber lens is for fast-moving ball sports, such as tennis, baseball, football or soccer. Grey-green is better for blocking glare for runners or helping a golfer read the contour of the ground.
Do they really help athletes see better? Probably as much as Phil Knight's shoes help you jump higher.
Evil, God and the Pope
Richard Cohen in the WaPo on Pope Benedict's visit to Auschwitz:
Now, though, Benedict has actually said something. He said more or less what I did after visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau -- and before that, Treblinka, and afterward, Buchenwald and Terezin. He said what I said after reading a shelf of books on the Holocaust and listening to the stories of survivors: "Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?" Only I put it differently. Where were you, God? I don't think You were silent. I don't even think You were there.
Religious people can wrestle with the pope's remarks. What does it mean that God was silent? That He approved? That He liked what He saw? That He didn't give a damn? You tell me. And what does it mean that He could "tolerate all this"? That the Nazis were okay by Him? That even the murder of Catholic clergy was no cause for intercession? I am at a loss to explain this. I cannot believe in such a God.
This is a God who was away from his desk or something and did not notice the plumes of human ash reaching to the heavens themselves. Is that what the pope wants us to believe? No, I think it is something even worse: If God was silent, who could blame the church for being silent, too? Is that what Benedict is saying? If so, he is continuing the tradition of saying nothing.
I know Holocaust survivors who are religious. I don't understand it. I know others who feel that Auschwitz is proof that there is no God. I understand that. I am sure there are people who feel that way about Biafra or Rwanda or even Hurricane Katrina. I can understand all of that, too.
I give Benedict some credit. Not from him do we get the inane God of American optimism, the deity of American politics who is always compassionate and on our side and will make everything just wonderful if only we put our faith in him. This is the Chamber of Commerce God of George W. Bush and sometimes, when Bush talks that way, I want to scream "Auschwitz!" at him. Auschwitz! Mr. President, have you ever heard of Auschwitz?
Rome is beautiful, as always, and the monuments and buildings raised in the name of religion are stunning, as always, and I want to go directly to the Vatican, bang on the pope's door and demand that he answer my questions. But I imagine he would look at me with pity because I hear nothing but silence and he, buoyed by faith, just listens harder.
Now, though, Benedict has actually said something. He said more or less what I did after visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau -- and before that, Treblinka, and afterward, Buchenwald and Terezin. He said what I said after reading a shelf of books on the Holocaust and listening to the stories of survivors: "Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?" Only I put it differently. Where were you, God? I don't think You were silent. I don't even think You were there.
Religious people can wrestle with the pope's remarks. What does it mean that God was silent? That He approved? That He liked what He saw? That He didn't give a damn? You tell me. And what does it mean that He could "tolerate all this"? That the Nazis were okay by Him? That even the murder of Catholic clergy was no cause for intercession? I am at a loss to explain this. I cannot believe in such a God.
This is a God who was away from his desk or something and did not notice the plumes of human ash reaching to the heavens themselves. Is that what the pope wants us to believe? No, I think it is something even worse: If God was silent, who could blame the church for being silent, too? Is that what Benedict is saying? If so, he is continuing the tradition of saying nothing.
I know Holocaust survivors who are religious. I don't understand it. I know others who feel that Auschwitz is proof that there is no God. I understand that. I am sure there are people who feel that way about Biafra or Rwanda or even Hurricane Katrina. I can understand all of that, too.
I give Benedict some credit. Not from him do we get the inane God of American optimism, the deity of American politics who is always compassionate and on our side and will make everything just wonderful if only we put our faith in him. This is the Chamber of Commerce God of George W. Bush and sometimes, when Bush talks that way, I want to scream "Auschwitz!" at him. Auschwitz! Mr. President, have you ever heard of Auschwitz?
Rome is beautiful, as always, and the monuments and buildings raised in the name of religion are stunning, as always, and I want to go directly to the Vatican, bang on the pope's door and demand that he answer my questions. But I imagine he would look at me with pity because I hear nothing but silence and he, buoyed by faith, just listens harder.
Monday, June 05, 2006
"They're Just Young and Stupid"
TORONTO - Canadians are struggling to understand the threat of "home-grown" terrorism after the arrest of 17 Toronto-area young men in connection with what investigators said were plans to commit massive terrorist attacks in Canada.
The suspects all lived in Canada at the time of arrest; many are longtime residents and citizens. Like the perpetrators of last summer's London bombings, these young Muslims apparently became radicalized not in Al Qaeda training camps abroad but in suburban neighborhoods where they led relatively unremarkable lives.
Such home-grown terrorism is a growing concern, says security analyst John Thompson.
"The cops have a nickname for it - the jihad generation," says Mr. Thompson, president of the Mackenzie Institute, a Toronto think tank.
"These are kids at a transition, between Islamic society and Western society," he adds. "A lot of people will get militarized if they're unsure of their own identity."
Plus, Thompson says, "They're just young and stupid. If you're 17, bored, restless, you want to meet girls - hey, be a radical."
I love that line. I was, you were, we all were during our teenage years - "just young and stupid". Except in my case, young and stupid meant trying to buy beer from Poopy's Carryout. In the case of these teenagers, it means blowing up buildings with lots of people in them.
The suspects all lived in Canada at the time of arrest; many are longtime residents and citizens. Like the perpetrators of last summer's London bombings, these young Muslims apparently became radicalized not in Al Qaeda training camps abroad but in suburban neighborhoods where they led relatively unremarkable lives.
Such home-grown terrorism is a growing concern, says security analyst John Thompson.
"The cops have a nickname for it - the jihad generation," says Mr. Thompson, president of the Mackenzie Institute, a Toronto think tank.
"These are kids at a transition, between Islamic society and Western society," he adds. "A lot of people will get militarized if they're unsure of their own identity."
Plus, Thompson says, "They're just young and stupid. If you're 17, bored, restless, you want to meet girls - hey, be a radical."
I love that line. I was, you were, we all were during our teenage years - "just young and stupid". Except in my case, young and stupid meant trying to buy beer from Poopy's Carryout. In the case of these teenagers, it means blowing up buildings with lots of people in them.
The Great War on Islamist Terror
First this:
The 12 men charged in Friday’s massive police operation range in age from 19 to 43 and are residents of Toronto, Mississauga and Markham, Ont., while the five youths cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act...
Police allege the 17 were involved in a plot to stage a massive terrorist attack by fashioning explosives out of three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer — three times the quantity used in the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people in 1995.
The arrests were made after suspects tried to purchase the fertilizer from undercover investigators who were mounting a sting operation, the Toronto Star reported.
Then this:
British anti-terrorist police are hunting for a "dirty" chemical bomb that could be used in an attack in Britain after a major raid failed to uncover a device they believe exists, newspapers reported on Saturday.
More than 250 officers, some wearing chemical, biological and radiological protection suits, shot one man and arrested another during a dawn raid on an east London house on Friday...
Some newspapers, citing unnamed security sources, said police believed suspected militants had made a "dirty" chemical device — a conventional bomb surrounded by toxic material that could be set off by a bomber wearing a suicide jacket.
"We are absolutely certain this device exists and could be used either by a suicide bomber or in a remote-controlled explosion," one source told the Sun newspaper.
Newspapers quoted security chiefs who they said believed an attack was imminent, with possible targets including the underground train network or pubs crowded with fans watching the soccer World Cup tournament which starts next week.
And this:
In a meeting last month with some families of victims of the July 7 attacks, John Reid, the Home Secretary, stunned his audience by telling them that 20 "major conspiracies" had been uncovered.
This was far more than anyone in Whitehall had previously divulged. Understandably, Mr Reid did not go into details but his claim came shortly after MI5 suggested that there were as many as 1,200 terrorist suspects living in Britain.
A report by the Joint Intelligence Committee leaked to a Sunday newspaper last month said that the war in Iraq had made Britain a target for al-Qaeda sympathisers "for many years to come".
This report showed the remarkable rise in suspects that MI5 was attempting to shadow. At the time of the 9/11 attacks, MI5 knew of about 250 "primary investigative targets" inside Britain. By July 7 last year that had risen to 800. Today it is more than 1,000. Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, had revealed how three attacks had been foiled since July 7 that were likely to have caused many more deaths than the 52 killed in last summer's suicide bombings...
Today's terrorists are suburban men who neighbours invariably describe as "hard-working, respectable and British to the core".
Some people choose to ignore the war. I say we fight it.
The 12 men charged in Friday’s massive police operation range in age from 19 to 43 and are residents of Toronto, Mississauga and Markham, Ont., while the five youths cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act...
Police allege the 17 were involved in a plot to stage a massive terrorist attack by fashioning explosives out of three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer — three times the quantity used in the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people in 1995.
The arrests were made after suspects tried to purchase the fertilizer from undercover investigators who were mounting a sting operation, the Toronto Star reported.
Then this:
British anti-terrorist police are hunting for a "dirty" chemical bomb that could be used in an attack in Britain after a major raid failed to uncover a device they believe exists, newspapers reported on Saturday.
More than 250 officers, some wearing chemical, biological and radiological protection suits, shot one man and arrested another during a dawn raid on an east London house on Friday...
Some newspapers, citing unnamed security sources, said police believed suspected militants had made a "dirty" chemical device — a conventional bomb surrounded by toxic material that could be set off by a bomber wearing a suicide jacket.
"We are absolutely certain this device exists and could be used either by a suicide bomber or in a remote-controlled explosion," one source told the Sun newspaper.
Newspapers quoted security chiefs who they said believed an attack was imminent, with possible targets including the underground train network or pubs crowded with fans watching the soccer World Cup tournament which starts next week.
And this:
In a meeting last month with some families of victims of the July 7 attacks, John Reid, the Home Secretary, stunned his audience by telling them that 20 "major conspiracies" had been uncovered.
This was far more than anyone in Whitehall had previously divulged. Understandably, Mr Reid did not go into details but his claim came shortly after MI5 suggested that there were as many as 1,200 terrorist suspects living in Britain.
A report by the Joint Intelligence Committee leaked to a Sunday newspaper last month said that the war in Iraq had made Britain a target for al-Qaeda sympathisers "for many years to come".
This report showed the remarkable rise in suspects that MI5 was attempting to shadow. At the time of the 9/11 attacks, MI5 knew of about 250 "primary investigative targets" inside Britain. By July 7 last year that had risen to 800. Today it is more than 1,000. Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, had revealed how three attacks had been foiled since July 7 that were likely to have caused many more deaths than the 52 killed in last summer's suicide bombings...
Today's terrorists are suburban men who neighbours invariably describe as "hard-working, respectable and British to the core".
Some people choose to ignore the war. I say we fight it.
The #1 Problem With Kids...Their Parents
From the NY Times article Where They Don't All Scream for Ice Cream, about a neighborhood group that had the city move an ice cream truck from its usual space near a park entrance to a space a block away, because their children wanted ice cream.
"It may seem like a curmudgeonly pursuit," said Christine Sciulli, a member of the park's board and the mother of two young sons. "But it was really difficult for parents and caregivers every time they entered the park. There's only one entrance into the park for small kids. It seemed like the deck was stacked in the favor of the ice cream and the toddlers."
With the truck a block away, she said, "it lessened the agony for every caregiver."
This is typical: If you can't train your kids, change others lives instead? Just say no, people. Just say no.
"It may seem like a curmudgeonly pursuit," said Christine Sciulli, a member of the park's board and the mother of two young sons. "But it was really difficult for parents and caregivers every time they entered the park. There's only one entrance into the park for small kids. It seemed like the deck was stacked in the favor of the ice cream and the toddlers."
With the truck a block away, she said, "it lessened the agony for every caregiver."
This is typical: If you can't train your kids, change others lives instead? Just say no, people. Just say no.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
A Moment of Silence, Please
OCEAN CITY, N.J. (AP) - A founder of the Mister Softee ice cream company has died at the age of 78. A relative says James Conway died of cancer at his home in New Jersey. Conway and his brother started the company in Philadelphia 50 summers ago, after experimenting with ways to deliver ice cream by truck.
Hee Hee
From the Philly Inquirer:
Before President Bush touched down in Pennsylvania Wednesday to promote his nuclear energy policy, the environmental group Greenpeace was mobilizing.
"This volatile and dangerous source of energy" is no answer to the country's energy needs, shouted a Greenpeace fact sheet decrying the "threat" posed by the Limerick reactors Bush visited.
But a factoid or two later, the Greenpeace authors were stumped while searching for the ideal menacing metaphor.
We present it here exactly as it was written, capital letters and all: "In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world's worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]."
Had Greenpeace been hacked by a nuke-loving Bush fan? Or was this proof of Greenpeace fear-mongering?
The aghast Greenpeace spokesman who issued the memo, Steve Smith, said a colleague was making a joke by inserting the language in a draft that was then mistakenly released.
"Given the seriousness of the issue at hand, I don't even think it's funny," Smith said.
The final version did not mention Armageddon. It just warned of plane crashes and reactor meltdowns.
Before President Bush touched down in Pennsylvania Wednesday to promote his nuclear energy policy, the environmental group Greenpeace was mobilizing.
"This volatile and dangerous source of energy" is no answer to the country's energy needs, shouted a Greenpeace fact sheet decrying the "threat" posed by the Limerick reactors Bush visited.
But a factoid or two later, the Greenpeace authors were stumped while searching for the ideal menacing metaphor.
We present it here exactly as it was written, capital letters and all: "In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world's worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]."
Had Greenpeace been hacked by a nuke-loving Bush fan? Or was this proof of Greenpeace fear-mongering?
The aghast Greenpeace spokesman who issued the memo, Steve Smith, said a colleague was making a joke by inserting the language in a draft that was then mistakenly released.
"Given the seriousness of the issue at hand, I don't even think it's funny," Smith said.
The final version did not mention Armageddon. It just warned of plane crashes and reactor meltdowns.
College Basketball Is For Los...Winners
From Mike DeCoursey:
This is far from the first time I've visited this particular topic.
Me writing on this subject is like Al Gore lecturing about global warming.
Every year when the NBA gets down to its final four teams, I take a moment to tell you where those players came from on their way to the league. And every year I get the same e-mails, perhaps even from the same people, who refuse to acknowledge that which is directly in front of them. Look, I don't know if the polar ice caps are melting, but I know what the NBA playoffs have told me every year since I started running these numbers:
The way to win big in the NBA is with players trained in U.S. colleges.
This is the first time, however, that there's been a sense this treatise will preach to the converted -- even if those who've seen the light did so by force. With the NBA by rule no longer permitted to draft high school players, this examination no longer is as germane as it once was. But it still makes a good point.
There are four teams left in the NBA playoffs, each of which employs about eight players in its playoff rotation. The training of those 32 players breaks down like so: 28 products of U.S. colleges, three internationally trained players, and one who entered the league directly out of high school. The NBA has drafted more than 20 high school players in the first round since 1999, and only one, Dallas' DeSagana Diop, is getting time at this stage of the playoffs.
This is perhaps the most lopsided survey yet in favor of the college guys. They do not make up 87.5 percent of the league, but they're making up 87.5 percent of the players who are mattering in big games.
By my count, 14 of the 28 played four years of college basketball, six played three years and seven played two years. Their average college experience: 3.2 seasons.
What does college give a player that many other levels of the game do not? In addition to high-level teaching from esteemed professionals, there is the chance to play for a meaningful championship in front of a passionate, demanding audience. Look around at the guys you see in the playoffs now. Antoine Walker, Tony Delk, Rip Hamilton and Jason Terry won NCAA championships, and Rasheed Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse, Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem competed in the Final Four. Tell me you can duplicate that experience in a Vegas high school gym during the summer club tournaments.
This is not to say a team should not draft Dirk Nowitzki or LeBron James if given the chance. What it does say is that given the chance, perhaps a James or Nowitzki would become even greater by playing in the NCAA.
This is far from the first time I've visited this particular topic.
Me writing on this subject is like Al Gore lecturing about global warming.
Every year when the NBA gets down to its final four teams, I take a moment to tell you where those players came from on their way to the league. And every year I get the same e-mails, perhaps even from the same people, who refuse to acknowledge that which is directly in front of them. Look, I don't know if the polar ice caps are melting, but I know what the NBA playoffs have told me every year since I started running these numbers:
The way to win big in the NBA is with players trained in U.S. colleges.
This is the first time, however, that there's been a sense this treatise will preach to the converted -- even if those who've seen the light did so by force. With the NBA by rule no longer permitted to draft high school players, this examination no longer is as germane as it once was. But it still makes a good point.
There are four teams left in the NBA playoffs, each of which employs about eight players in its playoff rotation. The training of those 32 players breaks down like so: 28 products of U.S. colleges, three internationally trained players, and one who entered the league directly out of high school. The NBA has drafted more than 20 high school players in the first round since 1999, and only one, Dallas' DeSagana Diop, is getting time at this stage of the playoffs.
This is perhaps the most lopsided survey yet in favor of the college guys. They do not make up 87.5 percent of the league, but they're making up 87.5 percent of the players who are mattering in big games.
By my count, 14 of the 28 played four years of college basketball, six played three years and seven played two years. Their average college experience: 3.2 seasons.
What does college give a player that many other levels of the game do not? In addition to high-level teaching from esteemed professionals, there is the chance to play for a meaningful championship in front of a passionate, demanding audience. Look around at the guys you see in the playoffs now. Antoine Walker, Tony Delk, Rip Hamilton and Jason Terry won NCAA championships, and Rasheed Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse, Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem competed in the Final Four. Tell me you can duplicate that experience in a Vegas high school gym during the summer club tournaments.
This is not to say a team should not draft Dirk Nowitzki or LeBron James if given the chance. What it does say is that given the chance, perhaps a James or Nowitzki would become even greater by playing in the NCAA.
More Benefits of the Traditional Family
Jeez, how long has it been since we had a good chat about comely girls? Via Dienekes, this article shows that in a sample of early 20-something girls at a Scottish university, daughters of happily married parents (HM) had more attractive and feminine faces than those whose parents either had separated pre-puberty (S) or had remained married but unhappily (UM). Color pictures in PDF here (L-to-R: S, UM, HM). As for body shape, the HM daughters had lower BMI (i.e., were slimmer) and lower waist-to-hip ratio (WHR, i.e., a more hourglass figure) than the other two groups. The authors make it clear that theirs is a correlational study that remains agnostic on the causal mechanisms, though Dienekes' post & comments discuss possibilities.
First, though, there's an interesting wrinkle: the authors and some of their references argue that the independent variable is presence of father (or parental cohesion), which yields the order S -> UM -> HM. The dependent variables are the markers of attractiveness, etc. However, the functions do not always turn out to be monotonic -- some curves decrease and switch to increasing like a U. Table 2 in the article summarizes the rank-ordering on the 3 facial markers. For "attractiveness," the order is UM -> S -> HM. For "health," it's UM -> S = HM. And for "masculinity," it's UM = S -> HM. Thus, if our graph has "parental cohesion" on the x-axis, the curve would be U-shaped for "attractiveness" and "health," though J-shaped for "masculinity." For body shape, Figure 2 shows that one variable, "impedence" (a measure of % body fat), wasn't significantly different among the groups. "Waist-to-chest ratio" (WCR) is a measure of the inverted-triangle shape of the upper body, something that men don't pay much attention to. The two important variables are BMI and WHR. On the latter, HM had significantly more hourglass figures than UM, though the S didn't differ significantly from either. On BMI, the HM were significantly slimmer than S, and apparently UM are in between.
So, aside from perhaps BMI, the facial and bodily markers suggest that the underlying cause increases thusly: UM -> S -> HM. Call it "home harmony." The biological correlate of this in the literature the authors cite is response to stress (cortisol), so perhaps in the sample the daughters of UM parents experienced greater stress from the arguing, bickering, and so on, compared to the daughters of S parents, who at least weren't frequently fighting in the daughter's presence. Remember, the sample was of university students, so it likely didn't include those from the underclass or the lower end of the working class. That suggests that, above a certain threshold of SES, having antagonistic parents stay together produces more dissonance in the home than if they separated, at least from the daughter's p-o-v.
Now on to the possible causes. Well, the first is what I just mentioned: the prevailing view that differences among father absent or father present homes reflect differences in stress during childhood. Humans have evolved a common set of responses, and those who happen to grow up without fathers turn out a different way from those who grow up with fathers. This is an environment / chance explanation. But as mentioned at the lead author's webpage and in the comments at Dienekes' post, there is also a (not mutually exclusive) genetic explanation: fathers who are apt to easily leave their wife & children, or who are too unruly for the wife to bother staying with, could be this way in part due to genes (perhaps for response to testosterone) which they pass on to their daughters.
Moreover, since it's usually not impossible to read warning signs about who's less reliable & dependable than who else, we could also look at the mothers who mate with the more flight-prone males. Such females would likely show a greater propensity for risk-taking or thrill-seeking, presumably heritable, so assortative mating could be exacerbating the genetic influence of father. It would be interesting to take a large sample of males from S, UM, and HM parents and ask them who they were most attracted to among the S, UM, and HM female composite faces. That would settle whether there was an assortative mating effect. It would also be interesting to genotype those from S vs HM parents to see if the former were more likely than expectation to have the 7R allele at the DRD4 locus -- if so, that would suggest involvement of heritable personality traits like novelty-seeking, impulse control, and so on, in both the dissolution of the marriage as well as the suite of behavioral outcomes of the daughter. It might also suggest why the daughters of S parents were judged more attractive than those from UM parents -- presumably the S parents were more "wild child"-like than the UM parents who had to "wimp out" to some degree in suppressing their impulses to split up. Perhaps greater "wild child"-ness increases one's sexiness score (since "sexy" usually connotes something more exciting or thrilling than just "attractive" or "beautiful"). The prototype here would be Angelina Jolie, who looks more than a bit masculine, who's well known to be possessed of a thrill-seeking disposition, and whose parents divorced when she was a baby.
To close, why would a tinge (though not an excess) of masculinity and rebelliousness make a female sexier, when these usually serve to make males sexier? These traits mix a "danger" component with the "beauty" component, which creates the thrill. My hypothesis is that, assuming the "cheesecake theory" of aesthetic pleasure popularized in How the Mind Works -- that art, cuisine, etc. are human devices to directly stimulate our evolved pleasure centers -- we enjoy stimulating not just the "relaxation" (or parasympathetic) division of our nervous system, but occasionally the "danger" (or sympathetic) division as well. Things that highly stimulate these divisions are, respectively, the beautiful and the sublime in an older terminology. Those whose aesthetic preferences lead them to want more than others to stimulate their "danger" system would appreciate a greater dosage of dangerous, masculine traits in females.
First, though, there's an interesting wrinkle: the authors and some of their references argue that the independent variable is presence of father (or parental cohesion), which yields the order S -> UM -> HM. The dependent variables are the markers of attractiveness, etc. However, the functions do not always turn out to be monotonic -- some curves decrease and switch to increasing like a U. Table 2 in the article summarizes the rank-ordering on the 3 facial markers. For "attractiveness," the order is UM -> S -> HM. For "health," it's UM -> S = HM. And for "masculinity," it's UM = S -> HM. Thus, if our graph has "parental cohesion" on the x-axis, the curve would be U-shaped for "attractiveness" and "health," though J-shaped for "masculinity." For body shape, Figure 2 shows that one variable, "impedence" (a measure of % body fat), wasn't significantly different among the groups. "Waist-to-chest ratio" (WCR) is a measure of the inverted-triangle shape of the upper body, something that men don't pay much attention to. The two important variables are BMI and WHR. On the latter, HM had significantly more hourglass figures than UM, though the S didn't differ significantly from either. On BMI, the HM were significantly slimmer than S, and apparently UM are in between.
So, aside from perhaps BMI, the facial and bodily markers suggest that the underlying cause increases thusly: UM -> S -> HM. Call it "home harmony." The biological correlate of this in the literature the authors cite is response to stress (cortisol), so perhaps in the sample the daughters of UM parents experienced greater stress from the arguing, bickering, and so on, compared to the daughters of S parents, who at least weren't frequently fighting in the daughter's presence. Remember, the sample was of university students, so it likely didn't include those from the underclass or the lower end of the working class. That suggests that, above a certain threshold of SES, having antagonistic parents stay together produces more dissonance in the home than if they separated, at least from the daughter's p-o-v.
Now on to the possible causes. Well, the first is what I just mentioned: the prevailing view that differences among father absent or father present homes reflect differences in stress during childhood. Humans have evolved a common set of responses, and those who happen to grow up without fathers turn out a different way from those who grow up with fathers. This is an environment / chance explanation. But as mentioned at the lead author's webpage and in the comments at Dienekes' post, there is also a (not mutually exclusive) genetic explanation: fathers who are apt to easily leave their wife & children, or who are too unruly for the wife to bother staying with, could be this way in part due to genes (perhaps for response to testosterone) which they pass on to their daughters.
Moreover, since it's usually not impossible to read warning signs about who's less reliable & dependable than who else, we could also look at the mothers who mate with the more flight-prone males. Such females would likely show a greater propensity for risk-taking or thrill-seeking, presumably heritable, so assortative mating could be exacerbating the genetic influence of father. It would be interesting to take a large sample of males from S, UM, and HM parents and ask them who they were most attracted to among the S, UM, and HM female composite faces. That would settle whether there was an assortative mating effect. It would also be interesting to genotype those from S vs HM parents to see if the former were more likely than expectation to have the 7R allele at the DRD4 locus -- if so, that would suggest involvement of heritable personality traits like novelty-seeking, impulse control, and so on, in both the dissolution of the marriage as well as the suite of behavioral outcomes of the daughter. It might also suggest why the daughters of S parents were judged more attractive than those from UM parents -- presumably the S parents were more "wild child"-like than the UM parents who had to "wimp out" to some degree in suppressing their impulses to split up. Perhaps greater "wild child"-ness increases one's sexiness score (since "sexy" usually connotes something more exciting or thrilling than just "attractive" or "beautiful"). The prototype here would be Angelina Jolie, who looks more than a bit masculine, who's well known to be possessed of a thrill-seeking disposition, and whose parents divorced when she was a baby.
To close, why would a tinge (though not an excess) of masculinity and rebelliousness make a female sexier, when these usually serve to make males sexier? These traits mix a "danger" component with the "beauty" component, which creates the thrill. My hypothesis is that, assuming the "cheesecake theory" of aesthetic pleasure popularized in How the Mind Works -- that art, cuisine, etc. are human devices to directly stimulate our evolved pleasure centers -- we enjoy stimulating not just the "relaxation" (or parasympathetic) division of our nervous system, but occasionally the "danger" (or sympathetic) division as well. Things that highly stimulate these divisions are, respectively, the beautiful and the sublime in an older terminology. Those whose aesthetic preferences lead them to want more than others to stimulate their "danger" system would appreciate a greater dosage of dangerous, masculine traits in females.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Now This Is Cool
Call it "Harry Potter and the Professors of Invisibility."
Fans of J.K. Rowling will recall that everyone's favorite boy magician can vanish at will. Potter just ducks under his magic cloak and swoosh . . . he is gone.
Last week a prestigious journal published two reports from scientists who have discovered how to achieve the same effect without breaking the laws of physics. Invisibility, they argue, is a matter of diverting light around an object so all the light continues on its way instead of reflecting off the object. The reports suggest using a thick shell of high-tech transparent material to do this. Even when looking directly at the object, an observer would see only what was behind it.
While Harry Potter's cloak relies on supplies found only in magic marketplaces like Diagon Alley -- the pelt of a "Demiguise" is apparently crucial -- the scientists' cloaking device would use newly developed materials that can bend light in unexpected ways. Scientists not involved in the work said the plans appear feasible but that they would require more-advanced substances than currently exist. Still, scientists said that the work represents an important theoretical advance likely to inspire new ideas in the booming field of materials science.
"It is a fascinating concept," said Steven G. Johnson, an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an e-mail. "But I suspect that you're unlikely to find it for sale anytime soon (except on Daigon Alley)."
Fans of J.K. Rowling will recall that everyone's favorite boy magician can vanish at will. Potter just ducks under his magic cloak and swoosh . . . he is gone.
Last week a prestigious journal published two reports from scientists who have discovered how to achieve the same effect without breaking the laws of physics. Invisibility, they argue, is a matter of diverting light around an object so all the light continues on its way instead of reflecting off the object. The reports suggest using a thick shell of high-tech transparent material to do this. Even when looking directly at the object, an observer would see only what was behind it.
While Harry Potter's cloak relies on supplies found only in magic marketplaces like Diagon Alley -- the pelt of a "Demiguise" is apparently crucial -- the scientists' cloaking device would use newly developed materials that can bend light in unexpected ways. Scientists not involved in the work said the plans appear feasible but that they would require more-advanced substances than currently exist. Still, scientists said that the work represents an important theoretical advance likely to inspire new ideas in the booming field of materials science.
"It is a fascinating concept," said Steven G. Johnson, an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an e-mail. "But I suspect that you're unlikely to find it for sale anytime soon (except on Daigon Alley)."
Dang It, I Missed Urban Beach Week...And Doesn't Everyone Know Gilbert Arenas Is A Baller
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas and forward Awvee Storey have been arrested on charges of disobeying police.
Storey, who played with the team last season but is not currently under contract, was blocking traffic in the middle of a busy street when an officer told him to get back to the sidewalk Saturday night, according to police reports. Storey didn't get out of the street, and the officer arrested him and charged him with failure to obey a command.
While police were arresting Storey, Arenas got out of a vehicle and walked toward the arresting officers. According to reports, an officer told Arenas to get back in his vehicle, but he refused, saying he wanted to stand next to his teammate. The officer took Arenas into custody and charged him with resisting without violence.
As Arenas was being arrested, according to reports, he said, "You can't arrest me. I'm a basketball player. I play for the Washington Wizards, and I'm not going to leave my teammate." Both players bonded out of jail Monday.
The Wizards released a statement saying, "We are aware of the situation and, until we have more information, we will have no comment."
The two were arrested as part of a crackdown on disorderly behavior among those who flocked to Miami Beach for Memorial Day weekend. According to The Washington Post, Arenas and Storey were in town for an annual celebration of hip-hop music and culture known as Urban Beach Week.
A total of 557 people were arrested between Thursday morning and Saturday night on Miami Beach. Most arrests were for disorderly conduct and intoxication. During the same three-day period last year, there were 333 arrests.
Storey, who played with the team last season but is not currently under contract, was blocking traffic in the middle of a busy street when an officer told him to get back to the sidewalk Saturday night, according to police reports. Storey didn't get out of the street, and the officer arrested him and charged him with failure to obey a command.
While police were arresting Storey, Arenas got out of a vehicle and walked toward the arresting officers. According to reports, an officer told Arenas to get back in his vehicle, but he refused, saying he wanted to stand next to his teammate. The officer took Arenas into custody and charged him with resisting without violence.
As Arenas was being arrested, according to reports, he said, "You can't arrest me. I'm a basketball player. I play for the Washington Wizards, and I'm not going to leave my teammate." Both players bonded out of jail Monday.
The Wizards released a statement saying, "We are aware of the situation and, until we have more information, we will have no comment."
The two were arrested as part of a crackdown on disorderly behavior among those who flocked to Miami Beach for Memorial Day weekend. According to The Washington Post, Arenas and Storey were in town for an annual celebration of hip-hop music and culture known as Urban Beach Week.
A total of 557 people were arrested between Thursday morning and Saturday night on Miami Beach. Most arrests were for disorderly conduct and intoxication. During the same three-day period last year, there were 333 arrests.
"Decades of Human Incompetence and Neglect"
Eugene Robinson in the WaPo:
The evidence, by now, is overwhelming: Beautiful, decadent New Orleans wasn't doomed by Hurricane Katrina but by decades of human incompetence and neglect. As far as the drowned city is concerned, the greatest natural disaster in the nation's history would have been just a messy inconvenience if not for the fumbling hand of man.
The mortal threat to New Orleans, as Katrina plowed into the Gulf Coast, was not the powerful winds -- Mississippi took the brunt of those -- but the massive storm surge the hurricane generated. We now know that the levees, floodwalls and other barriers protecting the city were, for the most part, plenty tall enough and theoretically strong enough to keep the waters at bay. On paper, New Orleans should have ended up wet and wounded, but basically intact.
What happened instead was "the single most costly catastrophic failure of an engineered system in history," according to a report issued last week by the Independent Levee Investigation Team, a blue-ribbon panel led by experts from the University of California at Berkeley and funded by the National Science Foundation.
Some of the flood barriers were built using inadequate materials, the report says. Others were designed so poorly that they provided weak spots for the waters to exploit. Still others were left unfinished for lack of funds.
The evidence, by now, is overwhelming: Beautiful, decadent New Orleans wasn't doomed by Hurricane Katrina but by decades of human incompetence and neglect. As far as the drowned city is concerned, the greatest natural disaster in the nation's history would have been just a messy inconvenience if not for the fumbling hand of man.
The mortal threat to New Orleans, as Katrina plowed into the Gulf Coast, was not the powerful winds -- Mississippi took the brunt of those -- but the massive storm surge the hurricane generated. We now know that the levees, floodwalls and other barriers protecting the city were, for the most part, plenty tall enough and theoretically strong enough to keep the waters at bay. On paper, New Orleans should have ended up wet and wounded, but basically intact.
What happened instead was "the single most costly catastrophic failure of an engineered system in history," according to a report issued last week by the Independent Levee Investigation Team, a blue-ribbon panel led by experts from the University of California at Berkeley and funded by the National Science Foundation.
Some of the flood barriers were built using inadequate materials, the report says. Others were designed so poorly that they provided weak spots for the waters to exploit. Still others were left unfinished for lack of funds.
Quote of the Day
Prince Philip says Olympic opening and closing ceremonies are "bloody nuisances " which should be banned.
In an interview with the London Daily Telegraph, the Duke of Edinburgh said he and Queen Elizabeth will have "as little as possible" to do with London's Olympics in 2012, when he will be 91.
"Opening and closing ceremonies ought to be banned. Absolute bloody nuisances," he told the newspaper.
"I have been to one that was absolutely, appallingly awful - aaaagh," he reportedly said.
In an interview with the London Daily Telegraph, the Duke of Edinburgh said he and Queen Elizabeth will have "as little as possible" to do with London's Olympics in 2012, when he will be 91.
"Opening and closing ceremonies ought to be banned. Absolute bloody nuisances," he told the newspaper.
"I have been to one that was absolutely, appallingly awful - aaaagh," he reportedly said.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Who Receives the Navy Cross?
Extraordinary men like Marine Capt. Brian Chontosh:
While leading his platoon north on Highway 1 toward Ad Diwaniyah, Chontosh's platoon moved into a coordinated ambush of mortars, rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapons fire. With coalitions tanks blocking the road ahead, he realized his platoon was caught in a kill zone.
He had his driver move the vehicle through a breach along his flank, where he was immediately taken under fire from an entrenched machine gun. Without hesitation, Chontosh ordered the driver to advanced directly at the enemy position enabling his .50 caliber machine gunner to silence the enemy.
He then directed his driver into the enemy trench, where he exited his vehicle and began to clear the trench with an M16A2 service rifle and 9 millimeter pistol. His ammunition depleted, Chontosh, with complete disregard for his safety, twice picked up discarded enemy rifles and continued his ferocious attack.
When a Marine following him found an enemy rocket propelled grenade launcher, Chontosh used it to destroy yet another group of enemy soldiers.
When his audacious attack ended, he had cleared over 200 meters of the enemy trench, killing more than 20 enemy soldiers and wounding several others.
While leading his platoon north on Highway 1 toward Ad Diwaniyah, Chontosh's platoon moved into a coordinated ambush of mortars, rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapons fire. With coalitions tanks blocking the road ahead, he realized his platoon was caught in a kill zone.
He had his driver move the vehicle through a breach along his flank, where he was immediately taken under fire from an entrenched machine gun. Without hesitation, Chontosh ordered the driver to advanced directly at the enemy position enabling his .50 caliber machine gunner to silence the enemy.
He then directed his driver into the enemy trench, where he exited his vehicle and began to clear the trench with an M16A2 service rifle and 9 millimeter pistol. His ammunition depleted, Chontosh, with complete disregard for his safety, twice picked up discarded enemy rifles and continued his ferocious attack.
When a Marine following him found an enemy rocket propelled grenade launcher, Chontosh used it to destroy yet another group of enemy soldiers.
When his audacious attack ended, he had cleared over 200 meters of the enemy trench, killing more than 20 enemy soldiers and wounding several others.
Quote of the Day
I have often a strange feeling. When I read the ancient classics of Christian theology, the fathers of the church, I find them more relevant to the troubles and problems of my own time than the production of modern theologians. The fathers were wrestling with existential problems, with those revelations of the eternal issues which were described and recorded in Holy Scripture. I would risk a suggestion that St. Athanasius and St. Augustine are much more up to date than many of our theological contemporaries. The reason is very simple: they were dealing with things and not with the maps, they were concerned not so much with what man can believe as with what God had done for man. We have, “in a time such as this,” to enlarge our perspective, to acknowledge the masters of old, and to attempt for our own age an existential synthesis of Christian experience. -- Father Georges Florovsky
Joke of the Day
The minister of a Baptist church decides that God is calling the church to a new vision of what it is to be and to do. So at the Elders' Meeting, he presents the new vision with as much energy, conviction and passion as he can muster. When he had finished and sat down, the chair of the meeting called for a vote. All 14 elders voted against the new vision, with only the minister voting for it.
"Well, pastor, it looks like you will have to think again," says the chairman. "Would you like to close the meeting in prayer?"
So the minister stands up, raises his hand to heaven, and prays, "LORD, will you not show these people that this is not MY vision but it is YOUR vision!"
At that moment, the clouds darken, thunder rolls, and a streak of lightning bursts through the window and strikes in two the table at which they are sitting, throwing the minister and all the elders to the ground.
After a moment's silence, as they all get up and dust themselves off, the chairman speaks again.
"Well, that's fourteen votes to two then."
"Well, pastor, it looks like you will have to think again," says the chairman. "Would you like to close the meeting in prayer?"
So the minister stands up, raises his hand to heaven, and prays, "LORD, will you not show these people that this is not MY vision but it is YOUR vision!"
At that moment, the clouds darken, thunder rolls, and a streak of lightning bursts through the window and strikes in two the table at which they are sitting, throwing the minister and all the elders to the ground.
After a moment's silence, as they all get up and dust themselves off, the chairman speaks again.
"Well, that's fourteen votes to two then."
Drink Up, Boys!
LONDON (Reuters) - Moderate drinking reduces the risk of heart disease but the beneficial effects of alcohol seem to work differently in men and women, Danish researchers said on Friday.
They found that for men drinking daily seems to have the biggest positive effect on health while in women the amount of alcohol consumed may have more of an impact.
"The risk of heart disease was lowest among men who drank every day," said Janne Tolstrup of the National Institute for Public Health in Copenhagen.
But a daily tipple did not cut the odds of heart disease in women, according to the findings reported in the British Medical Journal.
They found that for men drinking daily seems to have the biggest positive effect on health while in women the amount of alcohol consumed may have more of an impact.
"The risk of heart disease was lowest among men who drank every day," said Janne Tolstrup of the National Institute for Public Health in Copenhagen.
But a daily tipple did not cut the odds of heart disease in women, according to the findings reported in the British Medical Journal.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Joke of the Day
A man arrived from Europe at Ben Gurion International Airport with 2 large bags. The customs agent opens the first bag to discover it is full with money in different currencies. The agent asks the passenger, "How did you get this money?"
The man says, "You will not believe it, but I traveled all over Europe, and went into public restrooms. Each time I saw a man peeing, I grabbed his organ and told him: 'Donate money to Israel or I'll cut your [kibbles and bits] off.'"
The customs agent is stunned and mumbles: "Well...that's a unique and very interesting story...and what do you have in the other bag?"
The man says, "You wouldn't believe how many people in Europe do not support Israel."
The man says, "You will not believe it, but I traveled all over Europe, and went into public restrooms. Each time I saw a man peeing, I grabbed his organ and told him: 'Donate money to Israel or I'll cut your [kibbles and bits] off.'"
The customs agent is stunned and mumbles: "Well...that's a unique and very interesting story...and what do you have in the other bag?"
The man says, "You wouldn't believe how many people in Europe do not support Israel."
Nice Hire, Hoosiers
The NCAA on Thursday banned Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson from calling recruits and visiting them off-campus, ruling he deliberately broke NCAA rules by making extra phone calls to potential players while coaching Oklahoma.
The decision, announced by the Committee on Infractions, also requires Indiana to adopt the restrictions Oklahoma placed on Sampson, where he coached before Indiana hired him earlier this year.
"This case is a result of the former head coach's complete disregard for NCAA guidelines for proper telephone contacts with recruits," infractions committee chairman Thomas Yeager said in a written statement. "The former head coach created and encouraged an atmosphere among his staff of deliberate noncompliance, rationalizing the violations as being a result of 'prioritizing' rules."
The contract Sampson signed with Indiana on April 20 says the school "may take further action, up to and including termination" if the NCAA "imposes more significant penalties or sanctions than the University of Oklahoma's self-imposed sanctions."
It was not immediately clear if the Hoosiers would fire Sampson, who was in Kuwait and unavailable for comment. A message was left on the cell phone of Michael Glazier, Sampson's attorney.
It was also not clear whether the Hoosiers would face a scholarship loss, one of the sanctions Oklahoma imposed.
The decision, announced by the Committee on Infractions, also requires Indiana to adopt the restrictions Oklahoma placed on Sampson, where he coached before Indiana hired him earlier this year.
"This case is a result of the former head coach's complete disregard for NCAA guidelines for proper telephone contacts with recruits," infractions committee chairman Thomas Yeager said in a written statement. "The former head coach created and encouraged an atmosphere among his staff of deliberate noncompliance, rationalizing the violations as being a result of 'prioritizing' rules."
The contract Sampson signed with Indiana on April 20 says the school "may take further action, up to and including termination" if the NCAA "imposes more significant penalties or sanctions than the University of Oklahoma's self-imposed sanctions."
It was not immediately clear if the Hoosiers would fire Sampson, who was in Kuwait and unavailable for comment. A message was left on the cell phone of Michael Glazier, Sampson's attorney.
It was also not clear whether the Hoosiers would face a scholarship loss, one of the sanctions Oklahoma imposed.
Huh?
The Treasury Department announced this morning that after losing in five circuit courts of appeals, the Government is throwing in the towel and will no longer seek to enforce the 3% excise tax on long-distance telephone calls enacted during the Spanish-American War of 1898 as a "luxury" tax on wealthy Americans who owned telephones. The IRS will issue $15 billion in refunds to consumers for long-distance telephone service taxes paid over the past three years.
Glen Reynolds notes: "It's a nice reminder of how long 'temporary' taxes can last, and of how taxes targeted at 'the rich' often turn out to reach others."
Glen Reynolds notes: "It's a nice reminder of how long 'temporary' taxes can last, and of how taxes targeted at 'the rich' often turn out to reach others."
Why Is This?
...One is California's demographics: It is 11 percent Asian compared to 4 percent for the nation as a whole. Two is academic prestige: As the oldest and most selective campus of the University of California, Berkeley has an undergraduate population that is 42 percent Asian. (As a general rule, the more selective the school, the higher the percentage of Asian students.)
...Harvard is 17 percent Asian American; MIT, 28 percent; Stanford, 24 percent; Princeton and Yale, 13 percent.
Race? Culture? Both?
...Harvard is 17 percent Asian American; MIT, 28 percent; Stanford, 24 percent; Princeton and Yale, 13 percent.
Race? Culture? Both?
More Good Economic News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy shot forward at an upwardly revised 5.3 percent annual rate in the first quarter, the fastest growth in 2-1/2 years, as companies built up inventories and exports strengthened, a Commerce Department report on Thursday showed.
First-quarter growth in gross domestic product was more than triple the 1.7 percent annual rate recorded in last year's fourth quarter, though still slightly below Wall Street economists' forecasts for a 5.7 percent pace.
Prices remained in check, with the core personal consumption expenditures price index that the Federal Reserve favors rising at a 2 percent rate compared with 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter.
The first-quarter surge in GDP - the largest since a 7.2 percent jump in the third quarter of 2003 - was partly fueled by rebuilding in the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast region. Growth is widely forecast to level off in coming quarters to a range of between 3 percent and 4 percent.
So does this mean hurricanes are good for the economy?
First-quarter growth in gross domestic product was more than triple the 1.7 percent annual rate recorded in last year's fourth quarter, though still slightly below Wall Street economists' forecasts for a 5.7 percent pace.
Prices remained in check, with the core personal consumption expenditures price index that the Federal Reserve favors rising at a 2 percent rate compared with 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter.
The first-quarter surge in GDP - the largest since a 7.2 percent jump in the third quarter of 2003 - was partly fueled by rebuilding in the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast region. Growth is widely forecast to level off in coming quarters to a range of between 3 percent and 4 percent.
So does this mean hurricanes are good for the economy?
Holy Crap!!
Let's get it on, big boy. Let's get it on. From the Pittsburgh Tribune:
"Carson Palmer only beat us one time, so he should hate us," said linebacker Larry Foote, who knows the Steelers are 4-1 against the Bengals in the Palmer era. "I'd hate a team, too, if I only beat them one time and (lost) in the playoffs."
I asked Foote to gauge the Bengals' bitterness toward the Kimo von Oelhoffen hit that blew out Palmer's knee early in the Steelers' playoff victory.
"They self-destructed and started crying," Foote said. "But, you know, that's the game. People get hurt. You just have to get yourself together, get your composure. They lost it. ... When teams are forcing your will on you, it's going to make you do crazy stuff."
I can't wait until Rudy runs over Larry's ass. Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!
"Carson Palmer only beat us one time, so he should hate us," said linebacker Larry Foote, who knows the Steelers are 4-1 against the Bengals in the Palmer era. "I'd hate a team, too, if I only beat them one time and (lost) in the playoffs."
I asked Foote to gauge the Bengals' bitterness toward the Kimo von Oelhoffen hit that blew out Palmer's knee early in the Steelers' playoff victory.
"They self-destructed and started crying," Foote said. "But, you know, that's the game. People get hurt. You just have to get yourself together, get your composure. They lost it. ... When teams are forcing your will on you, it's going to make you do crazy stuff."
I can't wait until Rudy runs over Larry's ass. Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!
The Religious Left Is On The March
(May 23, 2006)--The United Methodist Church's chief social-issues spokesman, the Rev. Jim Winkler, says Congress should impeach President Bush "to advance the kingdom of God."
Winkler proposed that during the annual "Ecumenical Advocacy Days," attended by delegates from his church and other denominations, most of them members of the National Council ofChurches.
In his view, "there was nothing Christian" in President Bush's response to the 9/11 attacks.
The Methodist church's official Social Principles declare, "War is incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ," and reject war "as an instrument of national foreign policy."
The Methodists are America's third-largest religious body.
Winkler proposed that during the annual "Ecumenical Advocacy Days," attended by delegates from his church and other denominations, most of them members of the National Council ofChurches.
In his view, "there was nothing Christian" in President Bush's response to the 9/11 attacks.
The Methodist church's official Social Principles declare, "War is incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ," and reject war "as an instrument of national foreign policy."
The Methodists are America's third-largest religious body.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Can A Teacher Be Fired For This?
ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- A middle school teacher was arrested after police said he showed up at school drunk, asked one of his students to fetch cognac, then fondled a student and made a sexual remark to another.
The teacher, Sterling Johnson, was charged with misdemeanor assault and a misdemeanor count of disturbing the peace.
The school system will seek to have him fired, said Creg Williams, superintendent of public schools in St. Louis.
Johnson, 55, is an industrial arts teacher at the Pruitt Military Academy, a magnet school in the district.
I wonder if this guy has tenure.
Awakenings!
A drug commonly used as a sleeping pill appears to have had a miraculous effect on brain-damaged patients who have been in a permanent vegetative state for years, arousing them to the point where some are able to speak to their families, scientists report today.
The dramatic improvement occurs within 20 minutes of taking the drug, Zolpidem, and wears off after around four hours - at which point the patients return to their permanent vegetative state, according to a paper published in the medical journal NeuroRehabilitation.
All three patients were men around 30 who had suffered brain damage in car accidents. Patient L had been in a vegetative state for three years, showing no reaction to touch and no response to his family. After he was given the drug, he was able to talk to them. Patient G was also able to interact with family, answer simple questions and catch a baseball. Patient N "was constantly uttering random screams". After he was given the drug, the screaming stopped, and he started watching television and reacting to his family.
Ralf Clauss of the nuclear medicine department of the Royal Surrey County hospital, one of the authors, said that clinical trials were now needed. He said the drug could have uses in all kinds of brain damage, including Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's.
The dramatic improvement occurs within 20 minutes of taking the drug, Zolpidem, and wears off after around four hours - at which point the patients return to their permanent vegetative state, according to a paper published in the medical journal NeuroRehabilitation.
All three patients were men around 30 who had suffered brain damage in car accidents. Patient L had been in a vegetative state for three years, showing no reaction to touch and no response to his family. After he was given the drug, he was able to talk to them. Patient G was also able to interact with family, answer simple questions and catch a baseball. Patient N "was constantly uttering random screams". After he was given the drug, the screaming stopped, and he started watching television and reacting to his family.
Ralf Clauss of the nuclear medicine department of the Royal Surrey County hospital, one of the authors, said that clinical trials were now needed. He said the drug could have uses in all kinds of brain damage, including Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's.
Ouch!
Where to begin? As I’ve written before, virtually all of the gripping stories from Katrina were untrue. All of those stories about, in Paula Zahn’s words, “bands of rapists, going block to block”? Not true. The tales of snipers firing on medevac helicopters? Bogus. The yarns, peddled on Oprah by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and the New Orleans police chief, that “little babies” were getting raped in the Superdome and that the bodies of the murdered were piling up? Completely false. The stories about poor blacks dying in comparatively huge numbers because American society “left them behind”? Nah-ah. While most outlets limited themselves to taking Nagin’s estimate of 10,000 dead at face value, Editor and Publisher—the watchdog of the media—ran the headline, “Mortuary Director Tells Local Paper 40,000 Could Be Lost in Hurricane."
In all of Louisiana, not just New Orleans, the total dead from Katrina was roughly 1,500. Blacks did not die disproportionately, nor did the poor. The only group truly singled out in terms of mortality was the elderly. According to a Knight-Ridder study, while only 15 percent of the population of New Orleans was over the age of 60, some 74 percent of the dead were 60 or older, and almost half were older than 75. Blacks were, if anything, slightly underrepresented among the dead given their share of the population.
This barely captures how badly the press bungled Katrina coverage. . . . And yet, an ubiquitous media chorus claims simultaneously that Katrina was Bush’s worst hour and the press’s best.
In all of Louisiana, not just New Orleans, the total dead from Katrina was roughly 1,500. Blacks did not die disproportionately, nor did the poor. The only group truly singled out in terms of mortality was the elderly. According to a Knight-Ridder study, while only 15 percent of the population of New Orleans was over the age of 60, some 74 percent of the dead were 60 or older, and almost half were older than 75. Blacks were, if anything, slightly underrepresented among the dead given their share of the population.
This barely captures how badly the press bungled Katrina coverage. . . . And yet, an ubiquitous media chorus claims simultaneously that Katrina was Bush’s worst hour and the press’s best.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
McCain On The Money
The United States needs to overcome its fear of nuclear power and embrace the technology as a way to wean itself from fossil fuels, Sen. John McCain told an audience in Manchester yesterday.
Nuclear power "is safe. The technology is here," McCain said, speaking to a crowd of about 200 at a breakfast hosted by The New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women. "It's a NIMBY (not in my backyard) problem, and a waste-disposal problem. It is not a technological problem."
McCain pointed to France, which draws more than three-quarters of its power from nuclear plants, and Russia, which has plans to build 40 new plants, as examples. "We've got to get over it, get over Three Mile Island," he said, referring to the 1979 accident at a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant.
Nuclear power "is safe. The technology is here," McCain said, speaking to a crowd of about 200 at a breakfast hosted by The New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women. "It's a NIMBY (not in my backyard) problem, and a waste-disposal problem. It is not a technological problem."
McCain pointed to France, which draws more than three-quarters of its power from nuclear plants, and Russia, which has plans to build 40 new plants, as examples. "We've got to get over it, get over Three Mile Island," he said, referring to the 1979 accident at a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant.
Quote of the Day
"I hate the Steelers," [Carson] Palmer told Sports Illustrated. "I keep thinking about how much, back in college, I hated UCLA. I hate the Steelers more than I hate UCLA. Yeah, it's because I'm jealous and I want what they have. I guess I'm just not that evolved."
Translation: Steelers, let's get it on!
Translation: Steelers, let's get it on!
Monday, May 22, 2006
The Material Girl
Madonna caused a stir at the opening night of her latest concert tour. Along with an obscene reference to President Bush (and comparing him and Tony Blair to Hitler and bin Laden in a video montage), the pop singer hung herself from a mirrored cross while wearing a crown of thorns. It’s good to see that the 47-year-old still exercises good taste...and has grown up.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
This Is A Big Freakin' Problem
Washington -- The current migration of Mexicans and Central Americans to the United States is one of the largest diasporas in modern history, experts say.
Roughly 10 percent of Mexico's population of about 107 million is now living in the United States, estimates show. About 15 percent of Mexico's labor force is working in the United States. One in every 7 Mexican workers migrates to the United States.
Mass migration from Mexico began more than a century ago. It is deeply embedded in the history, culture and economies of both nations. The current wave began with Mexico's economic crisis in 1982, accelerated sharply in the 1990s with the U.S. economic boom, and today has reached record dimensions.
It is unlikely to ebb anytime soon.
My solution has always been to spend $10 or $30 or $50 billion and build a wall from Brownsville, TX to Tijuana (that's roughly 1,900 miles). It's a lot of money and a huge endeavor, but Mexicans are not going to stop coming any time soon.
Roughly 10 percent of Mexico's population of about 107 million is now living in the United States, estimates show. About 15 percent of Mexico's labor force is working in the United States. One in every 7 Mexican workers migrates to the United States.
Mass migration from Mexico began more than a century ago. It is deeply embedded in the history, culture and economies of both nations. The current wave began with Mexico's economic crisis in 1982, accelerated sharply in the 1990s with the U.S. economic boom, and today has reached record dimensions.
It is unlikely to ebb anytime soon.
My solution has always been to spend $10 or $30 or $50 billion and build a wall from Brownsville, TX to Tijuana (that's roughly 1,900 miles). It's a lot of money and a huge endeavor, but Mexicans are not going to stop coming any time soon.
Quote of the Day
Journalist: "What is the greatest spiritual sickness afflicting man today?
Thomas Merton: "Efficiency."
Amen, brother.
Thomas Merton: "Efficiency."
Amen, brother.
Deano and the Dems Better Rethink the Corruption Strategy
Democratic leaders began this year thinking that Republican corruption in Congress would be one of their most lethal campaign weapons, but GOP officials say that firepower has been defused by new accusations of bribery and other abuses against Democrats."The Democrats' attempt to paint this as a one-sided issue has come back to bite them. They have a lot of ethics problems in their own closet," said Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican.
The latest scandal emerged from the investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and lawmakers of both parties who purportedly did legislative favors for him and received lavish trips, gifts and campaign contributions in return, as well as the conviction on bribery charges of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, California Republican.
It since has widened in the House, where the ethics committee announced last week that it had begun investigating two lawmakers: Reps. William J. Jefferson, Louisiana Democrat, and Bob Ney, Ohio Republican.
The committee is investigating whether Mr. Ney received benefits and gifts from Abramoff as a result of official actions he took. It also will examine accusations that Mr. Jefferson was given money, stocks and other benefits from a technology company in exchange for helping the firm obtain business in Africa. Both men have denied wrongdoing.
Last night, FBI agents raided the Rayburn House Office Building, where Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Ney have offices, Reuters news agency reported. . . .
Another Democrat, Rep. Alan B. Mollohan of West Virginia, is the focus of an FBI investigation for his purported role in obtaining millions of dollars in pork-barrel appropriations for his state, a network of groups he set up that benefited from the money and a personal fortune that grew from $565,000 to more than $6.3 million in just four years.Mr. Mollohan, the ranking Democrat on the ethics committee, was forced to resign that post under pressure from party leaders.
As my buddy Lord Acton once said: "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely."
The latest scandal emerged from the investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and lawmakers of both parties who purportedly did legislative favors for him and received lavish trips, gifts and campaign contributions in return, as well as the conviction on bribery charges of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, California Republican.
It since has widened in the House, where the ethics committee announced last week that it had begun investigating two lawmakers: Reps. William J. Jefferson, Louisiana Democrat, and Bob Ney, Ohio Republican.
The committee is investigating whether Mr. Ney received benefits and gifts from Abramoff as a result of official actions he took. It also will examine accusations that Mr. Jefferson was given money, stocks and other benefits from a technology company in exchange for helping the firm obtain business in Africa. Both men have denied wrongdoing.
Last night, FBI agents raided the Rayburn House Office Building, where Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Ney have offices, Reuters news agency reported. . . .
Another Democrat, Rep. Alan B. Mollohan of West Virginia, is the focus of an FBI investigation for his purported role in obtaining millions of dollars in pork-barrel appropriations for his state, a network of groups he set up that benefited from the money and a personal fortune that grew from $565,000 to more than $6.3 million in just four years.Mr. Mollohan, the ranking Democrat on the ethics committee, was forced to resign that post under pressure from party leaders.
As my buddy Lord Acton once said: "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely."
I Finally Admit It...Iraq Is Lost!
May 19, 2006 — I have been to Iraq nine times since the American invasion three years ago, for a total of about 10 solid months. (My wife is counting.) During that time, I have seen bombs and blood, I have seen rebuilding and restructuring, and I have seen death and democracy. So what have I heard? That's easy: Lionel Richie.
Grown Iraqi men get misty-eyed by the mere mention of his name. "I love Lionel Richie," they say. Iraqis who do not understand a word of English can sing an entire Lionel Richie song.
Grown Iraqi men get misty-eyed by the mere mention of his name. "I love Lionel Richie," they say. Iraqis who do not understand a word of English can sing an entire Lionel Richie song.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
This Brings A Small Smile To My Face
Arsonists burned two cars in Ramallah on Saturday belonging to the Arab satellite TV station Al-Jazeera.
The cars, one belonging to Al-Jazeera's Jerusalem bureau chief, Walid Omari, were parked in a lot outside the TV station's office in Ramallah. Thick smoke billowed from the parking lot, covering the eight-story high-rise. "The fire is definitely arson," Omari told The Associated Press, but stopped short of accusing anyone.
In their growing battle, Fatah and Hamas have both accused Al-Jazeera of bias.
The cars, one belonging to Al-Jazeera's Jerusalem bureau chief, Walid Omari, were parked in a lot outside the TV station's office in Ramallah. Thick smoke billowed from the parking lot, covering the eight-story high-rise. "The fire is definitely arson," Omari told The Associated Press, but stopped short of accusing anyone.
In their growing battle, Fatah and Hamas have both accused Al-Jazeera of bias.
Holy Krivsky!
LHP Eric Milton today was reinstated from the 15-day disabled list...he will start tonight's game at Detroit.....since 4/24 Milton had been on the DL following arthroscopic surgery to clean out the meniscus in his left knee.
In the corresponding roster move, LHP Dave Williams was designated for assignment.
Man, the pitcher we traded Sean Casey for is already out. Wayne doesn't mess around...you either play well or you're gone.
In the corresponding roster move, LHP Dave Williams was designated for assignment.
Man, the pitcher we traded Sean Casey for is already out. Wayne doesn't mess around...you either play well or you're gone.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Headline of the Day
Giants in no-win situation with Bonds
Fading slugger hurting team by playing, but S.F. even worse without him
Huh?
Fading slugger hurting team by playing, but S.F. even worse without him
Huh?
I Love Movie Critics
Ross Douthat on the Da Vinci Code:
The reviews keep trickling in, and though they're nearly all negative, they're still irritating the sacred feminine out of me. Here's Richard Corliss, for instance:
Beneath the chases and crashes, the chalices and cilices, [the movie] denies Jesus’ divinity. As Teabing (perhaps not the most trustworthy authority) says in the movie, “The Greatest Story Ever Told is a lie!” And further still: the film challenges the belligerence that too often adheres to religious believers, the wars and atrocities perpetrated in His name. “Who is God, who is man?” asks Sophie. “How many have been murdered over this question?” I’m not taking sides on that issue. But for a mainstream, $125 million summer movie to raise it, let alone suggest a negative answer, in a cultural environment already politicized and polarized by religious debate, takes big steel balls. I didn’t know Opie had ’em.
Ah, yes - because there are so few Hollywood films that dare to suggest that faith isn't that important, that Christians got Christ all wrong, that people shouldn't ever dream of fighting over religion. Why, there hasn't been a mainstream, $125 million summer movie that took that position since way back in . . . 2005.
The reviews keep trickling in, and though they're nearly all negative, they're still irritating the sacred feminine out of me. Here's Richard Corliss, for instance:
Beneath the chases and crashes, the chalices and cilices, [the movie] denies Jesus’ divinity. As Teabing (perhaps not the most trustworthy authority) says in the movie, “The Greatest Story Ever Told is a lie!” And further still: the film challenges the belligerence that too often adheres to religious believers, the wars and atrocities perpetrated in His name. “Who is God, who is man?” asks Sophie. “How many have been murdered over this question?” I’m not taking sides on that issue. But for a mainstream, $125 million summer movie to raise it, let alone suggest a negative answer, in a cultural environment already politicized and polarized by religious debate, takes big steel balls. I didn’t know Opie had ’em.
Ah, yes - because there are so few Hollywood films that dare to suggest that faith isn't that important, that Christians got Christ all wrong, that people shouldn't ever dream of fighting over religion. Why, there hasn't been a mainstream, $125 million summer movie that took that position since way back in . . . 2005.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
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