Feb
29
Pope Gregory and the Leap Day
February 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I love stories like this because it pokes holes in the ridiculous image of the Catholic Church as the historical enemy of science and all good things.
T]he Earth does not orbit the sun in a nice round 365 days, but rather in 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds…[I]n the 13 century, a [...]
Feb
29
Major League Baseball Preview: AL East - Toronto Blue Jays
February 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The Toronto Blue Jays managed to briefly escape third place in 2006, finishing just ahead of the Red Sox for second. The good news for the Jays this year: they won’t finish third. The bad: they won’t finish third.
Enhanced Production: P) A.J. Burnett, RP) B.J. Ryan
Burnett is a perpetual injury risk, but if healthy he [...]
Feb
29
Two sides of McCain
February 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
There have been a couple of incidents this weak which reveal something about John McCain’s character. Depending on your perspective, they reassure you that he is a man of honorable character, or they show him to be somewhat sanctimonious and thin-skinned. In the end, they show a bit of all that and more.
The first is [...]
Feb
28
Major League Baseball Preview: AL East - Tampa Bay Rays
February 28, 2008 | 1 Comment
The Devil Rays are becoming a bit like the MLB version of the Arizona Cardinals. Every year it looks like this might be the one where they break out, and then they just wind up in the cellar as usual. And now, not only am I picking the Rays not to finish in the cellar, [...]
Feb
27
Shea Memories - August 8, 1997
February 27, 2008 | 1 Comment
It was two weeks before I had to drive back down south for college, and my aging green 1982 Chevy Caprice (known affectionately as the big green boat) needed some work. So I took it to the local garage, and as I waited on them to fix my car, I walked around and listened to [...]
Feb
27
William F. Buckley Jr. has died
February 27, 2008 | 2 Comments
Just heard on the Laura Ingraham show, and now on the Corner that William F. Buckley Jr. has died at the age of 82. I don’t know if I will get the chance in the coming days to write an extensive post, but nothing I write can really signify how important he was both for [...]
Feb
27
Sci-fi reality?
February 27, 2008 | 2 Comments
Linda Hamilton, protect us:
The world is sleepwalking into an international robot arms race, a leading expert will warn today.
Prof Noel Sharkey fears increased research and spending on unmanned military systems by countries including the US, Russia, China and Israel will lead to the use of autonomous battlefield robots that can decide when to kill within a [...]
Feb
26
Major League Baseball Preview: AL East - New York Yankees
February 26, 2008 | 1 Comment
The Yankees had quite the interesting off-season. Alex Rodriguez was lost, but then was found. Roger Clemens is gone, but his ghost may yet haunt the Yankees, especially Andy Pettitte. And they replaced one manager named Joe with another. Was Torre as overrated as some his fiercest critics contended? The answer may be revealed this [...]
Feb
26
Fake But Accurate, Redux
February 26, 2008 | 2 Comments
Once upon a time there was a notion that E.J. Dionne was some sort of fair-minded centrist. Sure, he was a liberal, so the thought went, but he wasn’t overtly partisan. He could take jabs at both the left and right, and he was a very rational journalist.
Over the past seven years the myth of [...]
Feb
26
Now an attack on Bishops from the right
February 26, 2008 | 8 Comments
I generally like Mark Krikorian’s work, though he is at times a bit overbearing on the issue of immigration. However, he took a rather silly swipe at the Bishops today:
Maybe this helps explain the RC bishops’ support for open immigration, contrary to the views of those in the pews:
Among U.S. adults, about the same percentage [...]
Feb
25
Major League Baseball Preview: AL East - Boston Red Sox
February 25, 2008 | 1 Comment
It’s time. With only 34 days unil baseball begins in North America, it is appropriate to start previewing the upcoming season.
I’m doing things a little differently this year. Instead of going division-by-division, I will be going team-by-team in the order of finish (from first to last), and I will be a bit more extensive in [...]
Feb
25
Morally justifying immoral voting behavior
February 25, 2008 | 4 Comments
Via Jay Anderson comes this Christopher Blosser post on Catholics in the Public Squre relating an attack on those well-known right-wing neanderthals known as the United States Bishops.
First up, we have Bishop DiMarzio of Brooklyn explaining that not all issues are of equal importance.
A “hierarchy of values” exists, which means not all political issues are [...]
Feb
24
Projections
February 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Baseball Prospectus (subscription required) has released its first round of Pecota Cards - those for hitters. BP is a great source of information in general, but invaluable for fantasy baseball preparation. The Pecota Cards provide a high level of detail, both in terms of player projections and historical data.
The release date may seem a bit [...]
Feb
22
Shea Memories - July 3, 1997 and July 17, 1997
February 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The Mets hit a rough patch in the middle of the 1997 season. They had been sniffing wild card contention, but a three-game sweep in Detroit knocked them down to fourth place. In came the second place Florida Marlins, and on this crappy night, the losing continued. Armando Reynoso started for the Mets. Armando had [...]
Feb
21
Watson: Still not making Obama look good
February 21, 2008 | 3 Comments
Poor Kirk Watson. As a state senator from the Austin area, he probably doesn’t get a lot of national media exposure. And when he finally does, he looks like a complete idiot. An Obama supporter, he couldn’t identify a single tangible thing that Obama has accomplished as a legislator to merit any praise. It’s refreshing [...]
Feb
21
Just another rag
February 21, 2008 | 1 Comment
Gorowing up in New York, we had four major newspapers: The Daily News, Newsday, The Post, and the Times. Newsday has become a Long Island-centered paper, so New York is really a three paper town now. The Post and the News are both tabloids that are definitely geared to a broader (read: less educated) audience, [...]
Feb
20
Robert Samuelson on Obama
February 20, 2008 | 3 Comments
Robert Samuelson might be the best columnist in America. He abides none of the typical Beltway crap, is as wary of democratic exuberance as I am, and is one of the few truly non-partisan columnists out there. Today, he takes on Barack Obama, and as usual, he gets it exactly right. It’s a must-read in [...]
Feb
19
On hold with Turbo Tax
February 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
After three dropped calls and four attempts to route me, I finally made it through to an IRS tax helper, who it turns out gave me only partially accurate information. It seems there is a tax form that I still need to file (or ought to, just to be on the safe side), and of course [...]
Feb
19
On hold with the IRS
February 19, 2008 | 3 Comments
I am currently on hold with the IRS, as I have a fairly simple tax question to ask of them. What better way to kill the time than to write a blog post. Let’s see how far I can get into this before one of their representatives actually gets to me.
So, umm, what’s up? Okay, [...]
Feb
18
Washington’s Birthday
February 18, 2008 | 3 Comments
While many today are celebrating something called “President’s Day,” we should remember that the official title of today’s holiday is “Washington’s Birthday,” and it is appropriate then to honor the greatest American in our Nation’s history.
When we honor people like Washington we can’t overlook their flaws. Washington was, after all, a slaveholder. But, unlike certain [...]