May
30
Going Camping
May 30, 2008 | 9 Comments
There’s a first time for everything, and I’m off to southwestern Virginia for my first outdoor camping trip. I’m looking forward to it. Have a good weekend, and please pray for us – among the four of us we’re two native New Yawkers who never have gone camping, a city-girl from Texas, and a Marine. [...]
May
30
Gomez v. Milledge, and an early look at Omar’s off-season success
May 30, 2008 | Comments Off
If you polled a thousand Mets fans in the off-season, I doubt more than a handful would have guessed that Carlos Gomez rather than Lastings Milledge would have a breakout season in 2008. But Gomez thus far has shined, while Milledge has struggled. Here are the numbers: Gomez: .298/.327/.429, 31 R, 22 RBI, 4 HR, [...]
May
29
Those evil economic conservative
May 29, 2008 | 2 Comments
What left-wing politico had the following to say: Republicans need to be Republicans. The greatest threat to classic Republicanism is not liberalism; it’s this new brand of libertarianism, which is social liberalism and economic conservatism, but it’s a heartless, callous, soulless type of economic conservatism because it says “look, we want to cut taxes and [...]
May
29
Yeah, sounds like a police state to me
May 29, 2008 | Comments Off
One of the reasons I can’t completely buy into the libertarian platform is the absolute, well, absolutism expressed by many libertarians. For example, Brendan O’Neill decries the supposedly thuggish policies of the newly elected Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Pardon me if I don’t join in O’Neill’s concern over the abolishment of drinking on the Underground. I’ve [...]
May
29
The company one keeps
May 29, 2008 | 9 Comments
Obama sure knows how to pick spiritual advisors. This Youtube clip of Fr. Phleger simply has to be seen to be believed: a white, middle-aged Priest pretending to be a black preacher, railing about how whites have benefitted from slavery. Umm, yeah. What was I saying about an entire part of the political spectrum going batshit [...]
May
28
I think I’m going to be ill
May 28, 2008 | Comments Off
One day we are going to realize that there is an entire portion of the political spectrum that is, not to put too fine a gloss on it, completely and utterly batshit insane. Exhibit A of what will be a long litany of such exhibits will be this – thing – written by Charles Pierce. [...]
May
28
Your reading assignemnt for the summer
May 28, 2008 | Comments Off
Courtesy of Amy Welborn I found this Catholic Reading Summer List. I’ve read a few of the titles, but there is much on here that I would like to dive into. Since the research portion of my dissertation is basically done, I should have some more free time. In fact, I think I’ll try to read [...]
May
28
Rethinking . . . suburbia
May 28, 2008 | 11 Comments
When I was about 17 I had a conversation with a friend of mine. I declared that my “dream” was to live in a house and neighborhood like my cousin’s – meaning a nice, big house somewhere in Westchester or other environs north of New York City. The suburban life was for me. Several years later [...]
May
27
Shea Memories – June 29 and July 2, 2000
May 27, 2008 | Comments Off
June 29, 2000 was a game that most Mets fans had circled on their calendar. It was the first scheduled game the Braves were to play at Shea that year. (I really hated the balanced schedule, by the way. How ridiculous was it that the Mets and Braves didn’t play each other until almost halfway through [...]
May
27
Best closer’s music
May 27, 2008 | 1 Comment
I love the ninth innings of ballgames, because that means it’s time for the closer to make his way into the game – which means its that time of the game for some kind of heavy metal song to blare from the speakers. Like WWE wrestlers, closers have to make a splash when they enter [...]
May
23
Still complaining after all these years
May 23, 2008 | 2 Comments
I’ve seen ads on HBO for their latest origjnal movie, Recount, a documdrama about the 2000 presidential election. I am shocked – SHOCKED! – to see that it is just a tad bit biased. Last night I watched the new movie Recount, which premieres Sunday night on HBO. I think the plot might best be [...]
May
23
More Piazza
May 23, 2008 | Comments Off
I couldn’t pass up this email sent to me by my friend Adam on the subject of Mike Piazza. As a Dodgers fan, he got to see Piazza develop into a Hall-of-Famer. As usual, he is loaded with all sorts of statistical goodies. Take it away, Adam: On Piazza I’m amazed at this attitude people [...]
May
23
Movies that are better than their books
May 23, 2008 | 1 Comment
Frederica Mathewes-Green had a column on NRO last week that I am just getting to where she lists, based on the feedback she received, ten movies (or series of movies) that are better than the books from which they are adapted from. It’s an interesting topic, and frankly the only movie that ever struck me as [...]
May
22
Pure Insanity
May 22, 2008 | 10 Comments
On my post about Mike Piazza’s retirement, Jay Anderson and Big Daddy Jeff (those initials don’t fool me!) give it the old college try of trying to argue that Ivan Rodriguez was somehow a better catcher than Mike Piazza. Ummm, no. I started responding to BDJ’s post in the comments section, but realized it deserved [...]
May
21
Rethinking . . . The Police
May 21, 2008 | Comments Off
I’ve decided to add a feature to the blog. Here I outline issues, popular culture items, or any other matter where I’ve had a change of heart in recent years. For the first installment, I look at the Police – the musical group, and not the people who protect us from crime. The Police were [...]
May
20
Mike Piazza retires
May 20, 2008 | 5 Comments
Mike Piazza officially retired from baseball today. “After discussing my options with my wife, family and agent, I felt it is time to start a new chapter in my life,” he said in a statement released by his agent, Dan Lozano. “It has been an amazing journey.” The 39-year-old Piazza was not on a team [...]
May
20
Getting it all wrong
May 20, 2008 | 1 Comment
Josh Curtis writes an article that is meant to be an insightful argument as to why the Mets and Yankees are underperforming, but he misses the mark quite badly. This weekend, as Mets and Yankees reprised their bi-annual rivalry, the familiar summer smell of sizzling hot dogs and grilled hamburgers was trumped by the cloying [...]
May
20
Says it all
May 20, 2008 | Comments Off
Rarely does one sentence so powerfully capture the folly of an entire way of thinking. When abortion was legalised in 1967 no one imagined there would be so many terminations or that abortion would become a form of post-coital contraception. Who could have thought it? How many social ills are tied to that very question?
May
20
Fisking Obama
May 20, 2008 | 3 Comments
I can’t really do much better than Jeff Miller in fisking this load of crap from Obama. Obama was speaking before whores for death Planned Parenthood, and it was a perfect storm of triteness and glorification in the culture of death, with a little bit of falsehood thrown in for good measure (see the Kennedy quote). [...]
May
20
It’s May 20, and the temperature isn’t even up to 60 degrees yet. When the hell did DC become Fargo?