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Saturday, May 29, 2004
Tillman Killed by Friendly Fire
This makes it a bit more tragic, but it does not diminish his sacrifice. Anybody care to bet that the moonbats will be barking?
Don't take the bet. It's already happening.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
The Greatest Minnesota Twin of All Time
It's a pretty good field among the hitters--Killebrew, who won many home run championships versus Puckett, who got lots of hits versus Carew who won many batting average titles, plus guys like Tony Oliva, Kent Hrbek and Gary Gaetti.
The pitchers don't stand out on this team quite as much. Jim Kaat got 189 wins, but the only other guys over 100 are Blyleven (149), Perry (128) Radke (116) and Viola (112).
Let's take Killebrew, Puckett and Carew as the best players. They are currently the only members of the Hall of Fame based mostly on their performance as Twins. Carew has the highest batting average at .334, while Puckett hit.318 and Killebrew only .260. Despite this, Killebrew was by far the best offensive player of the three. He knocked in and scored a total of 2372 runs, over 200 more than Puckett and almost 700 more than Carew. Much of that was due to his incredible power (475 career homers).
The Faces of the Enemy
If you recognize any of these people, contact law enforcement immediately!
Hat Tip: Rambling's Journal
Not Anti-War, Just Anti-American
Best of the Web Today points us to this letter from a Sherry Franzen of Eugene Oregon (6th letter down).
In response to Tabitha Perkins (letters, May 11) encouraging us to tie a yellow ribbon to support the troops no matter how one feels about the war, and to everyone else of like mind: I do not support the troops who are willing to kill for their government, for the money it pays, for the education they may receive later - if they make it home alive with their brains intact - or any patriotism they claim to represent. A yellow ribbon should denote cowardice in the case of welcoming these people home.
I say tie a blood-red ribbon on your arm, ...to show support for those willing to save blood for worthy endeavors.
Yes, Sherry, why don't you tie that blood red ribbon on your arm nice and tight. Don't worry, the tingling sensation will go away eventually.
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
The Greatest Chicago White Sox Player of All Time
The pitchers are basically Ted Lyons and Red Faber. Lyons had 260 wins, while Faber had 254. But Faber did much better overall--17 fewer losses in his career, a lower ERA, fewer hits and 1/2 the home runs allowed, a few more walks, but far more strikeouts. Faber must clearly be considered the class of the White Sox pitchers.
Among the hitters, Luke Appling had the most games, with Nellie Fox and Frank Thomas behind him. Thomas has passed Fox in runs scored and will probably pass Appling this season. Thomas also holds a rather ridiculous lead over those two with 418 round-trippers compared to a combined 80 combined between Appling and Fox. Not surprisingly, Thomas is way out in front among Pale Hosers in RBI, leading Appling by almost 200 and everybody else by 400.
So it's Faber or Thomas. A complicating factor is that Thomas is still playing, so he has the opportunity to add to his totals. You have to go with Thomas, who has frequently been compared to the greatest sluggers of all time. Red Faber is in the Hall of Fame, but Thomas will get there.
What's This Blog All About?
I was thinking about this on the way home from work this evening. If this blog has had any central theme, it's about heroes, and I use the term somewhat loosely. Sometimes I'm talking about real heroes like Brian Chontosh or Pat Tillman and sometimes I'm talking about sports "heroes" and sometimes I'm talking about superheroes like Batman (yes, I know he's not "super") and the Flash. I got some attention in the blogosphere on the Pat Tillman issue, particularly for the Ted Rall Unemployment Project, but it was just an oddball synthesis of four things I talk about constantly on this blog--sports, comics, politics and the war.
I will probably be covering the war a little less, although I will try to continue to find good stories of the heroes in uniform. Blackfive and Marine Corps Moms do a great job.
I'll continue the Greatest Player in the History of Every Team series later tonight. I haven't decided about doing other sports than baseball. I'm really only qualified at that and football, and football I suspect I'd just end up picking the best quarterbacks of all time for each franchise.
I'll probably start doing more posts on comic books, although it will be mostly comic book history. I have been reading a lot of the very old Batman stories lately thanks to abpc, to the point where I feel like more of an expert on the subject.
Monday, May 24, 2004
A Long Time Ago, In A Galaxy Fortunately Not Near Here....
Uberblogger and hardcore conservative AlGoreSucksEvenIfHeDidSaveOurAssesOn9-11 revealed today that Libertarians had arguably cost George Bush the Election. Consider:
Florida: As we all know, Florida barely went for Gore on the 17th recount by a mere 27 votes. However, if Libertarians had voted Republican at only a 55%-45% margin, Bush would have won Florida by 1500 votes.
Oregon: Pat Buchanan and Harry Browne got 14,000 votes between them; Bush would have needed about 11,000 or about 79% of those votes to go his way to have stolen seven electoral votes from Gore.
New Mexico: Gore won by a mere 366 votes out of almost 600,000 cast. If Bush had gotten 60% of the libertarians to vote for him instead of Gore, Bush would have won five more electoral votes.
Wisconsin: Buchanan and Browne combined for 18,000 votes; Bush lost by 5,700. If Bush had gotten 2/3rds of those voters, he would have beaten Gore.
Yes, folks, if it hadn't been for those damn libertarians (and Pat Buchanan), Bush would not only have been president the last few years, but he would have won handily.
At this point, operatives from the FBI, moving under authority from the Patriot Act, arrested the proprietor of AlGoreSucks... FBI Head Janet Reno credited alert local librarians with assembling the case against the website operator...
Sunday, May 23, 2004
The Greatest Player in the History of the Cincinnati Reds
Lots of good players. The pitching crop is a little thin, with Eppa Rixey leading the way with 173 wins. Lots of guys who were good for awhile, but nobody who was good for long.
The hitters are much more impressive. Pete Rose had 3,358 hits, 601 doubles and scored 1,741 runs as a Red. Johnny Bench played great defense at catcher and hit 389 homers and had 1,376 RBI. Despite the apparent advantage to Rose, Bench was a far superior offensive player. Rose consumed 7,861 outs in his career while Bench used up only 5,854. If we just look at (Runs + RBI)/Out, Rose is at .353 while Bench is at .421. Bench was a significantly better offensive player per out consumed than Rose, and of course defensively there was no comparison.
Barry Larkin must be considered very close with almost 200 more runs scored than Bench, and 200 more hits. But Bench whips him in the power stats with almost 200 more homers and over 450 more RBI.
Ragtime Author Gets Ragged
E. L. Doctorow, who wrote one very famous book about 30 years ago, decided to use the occasion of a college graduation speech to deliver a rant on the Iraq War and President Bush. Apparently it did not go over well.
Booing that came mainly from the crowd in the stands became so intense that Doctorow stopped speaking at one point, showing no emotion as he stood silently and listened to the jeers. Hofstra President Stuart Rabinowitz intervened, and called on the audience to allow him to finish. He did, although some booing persisted.
They bring up the Chris Hedges speech from last year, at which I believe the power was cut off from the microphone. I covered that speech here and here.
The Greatest Cleveland Indian of All Time
The Indians have been around since the inception of the American League in 1901; despite their longevity as a franchise, their hitting records are remarkably mundane. Terry Turner played the most games, with 1619. Earl Averill scored the most runs with 1154. Nap Lajoie leads in hits with 2,046. Jim Thome hit the most homers with 334; second place belongs to Albert Belle with 242. The RBI title is held by Averill with 1084.
The pitching records are rather more impressive. Feller leads the way in wins, with 266; clearly absent his service in WWII he'd be over 300. Mel Harder (223) and Bob Lemon (207) are the only ones even close.
Saturday, May 22, 2004
Tigers Update
The Tigers pulled themselves back to .500 today. They continue to be on track to set the record for the greatest year over year turnaround in the history of the major leagues.
The Greatest Texas Ranger of All Time
This is tougher than it looks because there's no obvious choice. The only Rangers to play more than 1000 games are (in descending order) Rafael Palmeiro, Jim Sundberg, Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, Toby Harrah, Ruben Sierra and Rusty Greer.
We can pretty easily dismiss Sundberg from consideration; although he was a good catcher, he was nowhere near the catcher that Ivan Rodriguez was. Looking at the sluggers, it's pretty clear that Juan Gone did more for the Rangers than Palmeiro--141 more RBI, 51 more homers. Greer, Harrah and Sierra were good ballplayers, but they're not in the class of Gonzalez and I-Rod.
Pitchers? Charlie Hough, Bobby Witt and Kenny Rogers are the only pitchers to win more than 100 games as a Ranger; Hough with 139 is the leader. It's safe to say that Ivan and Juan are well above the level of the pitchers.
So we're down to a classic slugger versus defensive whiz with solid hitting. Rodriguez is clearly the superior defensive player, so we know Juan has to beat him thoroughly on offense. And, somewhat to my surprise, Gonzalez does just that, which is what makes the selection difficult.
First the basics. Gonzalez and Rodriguez had very similar careers in Texas, overlapping for many years. Rodriguez played 1479 games and had 1723 hits as a Ranger, Gonzalez played 1400 and reached base safely 1595 times. But Gonzalez scored more runs, 878-852, and knocked in far more runs, 1180-829, largely because he out-homered the catcher by 372-215.
This is a very, very tough call. In the end it comes down to who's established his claim on the Hall of Fame.
The Greatest St. Louis Cardinal of All Time
This isn't a difficult choice. Musial holds all of the Cardinals records, in most cases with numbers that were National League marks when he retired. Musial played 3,026 games in a St. Louis uniform; Lou Brock is the only other man over 2,000.
If the Media Covered Basketball Like They Cover the War on Terror
This is an older post, but it's really quite good. Read down to the comments section, where Garnet Girl does a takeoff on "If the 9-11 Commission Investigated Gettysburg."
Friday, May 21, 2004
The Greatest Yankee of All Time
I'm going to go against type and say it's Yogi Berra. He held all the postseason records back when postseason meant the World Series. Ruth was a greater hitter, no doubt, but he delivered far fewer championships to the Yankees with four in 14 years (he had three others with the Red Sox) compared to Berra's astounding 10 World Series rings. Berra won 3 MVP awards and had many seasons when his performance was not far below those years.
Thursday, May 20, 2004
The Greatest Met of All Time
There are only eight players who have participated in over 1,000 games for the Mets. In descending order, they are Ed Kranepool, Bud Harrelson, Jerry Grote, Cleon Jones, Howard Johnson, Mookie Wilson, Darryl Strawberry and Edgardo Alfonzo. Strawberry's clearly the class of the bunch as a hitter, leading the team in runs scored, homers and runs batted in.
But Strawberry's totals are not eye-popping--252 homers, 733 RBI. Hard to argue that matches up with Seaver's 198 wins for the franchise. Gooden (157 wins) and Koosman (140) have the only arguments against Seaver from the pitching side. Koosman was only 3 games over .500 for the Mets, while Seaver was 74 games over and Gooden 72 games over.
Seaver had a better ERA (2.57 as a Met compared to Gooden's 3.10). He threw almost twice as many shutouts as the Doctor. He had a better strikeout to walk ratio. He's got the quantity stats and the quality stats.
Nick Berg's Dad Incredibly Stoopid
I suppose I should cut the guy a little slack, but this is just ridiculous:
People ask me why I focus on putting the blame for my son's tragic and atrocious end on the Bush administration. They ask: "Don't you blame the five men who killed him?" I have answered that I blame them no more or less than the Bush administration, but I am wrong: I am sure, knowing my son, that somewhere during their association with him these men became aware of what an extraordinary man my son was. I take comfort that when they did the awful thing they did, they weren't quite as in to it as they might have been. I am sure that they came to admire him.
WTF? Mr Berg, you are a mental case. And what's more, I get the impression you were a mental case well before your son's tragic and regrettable death.
Movies That Are So Bad They're Good
1. The Contender. This one starts out slowly, but rapidly delivers laugh after unintentional horselaugh. It's hard to pick a favorite worst bit from this movie because there are so many. Is it the scene where Joan Allen (nominated for the Vice Presidency) tells a congressional panel that she's not religious because she doesn't believe in fairy tales? Is it when she is surprised to learn that anybody considers her having an affair with her best friend's husband to have been adultery? Is it when she and Jeff Bridges (playing the President) slip out of the White House for a little conversation and the Secret Service comes rushing up 5 minutes later, having lost the president? Is it Bridges' over the top moment when he comes down to Congress to deliver a "Have you no shame?" speech? No for me, it's the closing of the movie, when the words "For Our Daughters" flashes on the screen.
2. Showgirls. Girl who makes a living stripping and hooking wonders why all men are jerks. Hellooooo!
Why Are There Rich Liberals?
La Shawn Barber points us to this excellent TCS article. The writer, Keith Burgess-Jackson, is a professor of philosophy, and it is evident from the painstaking way he assembles his argument.
A recurring theme in liberal thought is that wealth and poverty are undeserved. Where we end up in the social hierarchy, liberals say, depends far more on happenstance than on merit. Some people are born to advantage, others to disadvantage. But luck shouldn't play a role in people's fates, they say, so society must intervene -- coercively -- to equalize wealth, or at least move in that direction.
To be fair, liberals don't think that all is luck. They realize that effort, initiative, discipline, risk-taking, hard work, and sacrifice play a role in where individuals end up in the social hierarchy. But they think it's a small and insignificant role. By the same token, conservatives don't think that all is merit. They realize that luck plays a role in where individuals end up in the social hierarchy. But they think it's a small and insignificant role.
Conclusion:
Fortunately, most liberals grow out of liberalism by the time they reach middle age. I have. Several of my friends, family members, colleagues, and acquaintances have. But not all do. It's important to understand why some do not. I believe it's because there are degrees of guilt. The guiltiest of liberals -- those who worked least hard for what they have -- remain liberal the longest. Their guilt, which is unmitigated and intense, is projected indiscriminately and relentlessly onto everyone else. This is leveling with a vengeance. In this perverse way, liberals atone for their imagined sins.
Think of, say, Barbra Streisand. Fabulously wealthy and fabulously liberal. Now, don't get me wrong, I am sure Barbra worked hard to get to where she got to be. But I'm sure that she would also acknowledge the role of good fortune--she was lucky to be born with an excellent singing voice.
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
The Greatest Of All Time
Thought I might develop something I threw out there about Randy Johnson being the greatest Diamondback of all time. That's a pretty easy one--four Cy Young Awards in a row, co-MVP of the 2001 World Series, now a perfect game, all on a franchise that is in only its seventh season. Luis Gonzalez is the only guy even close--five consecutive seasons of 100+ RBI, including 142 in the year the team won it all, plus of course the series-winning hit.
More Good Stories
Blackfive points us to the story about Leane Palmer, a thoughtful military wife.
... Capt. Palmer’s nomination struck true with the AVA. "While in Kuwait, temperatures were over 120 degrees," writes Capt. Palmer in the nomination. "My wife, being a good seamstress, found a pattern for neck coolers (ties with crystals that, when soaked in water, swell up with cool gel offering relief from the heat). I thought she might make 50 or 100. She made 300 and rallied people to help purchase supplies to make over 600. She ended up mailing enough for my entire battalion."
As somebody who's experienced 120 degrees (Phoenix has reached that mark three times while I've been living here), I can appreciate how a little cooling can have a great effect.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Perfecto
The greatest player in Diamondback history.
More E&P Amusement
Get this letter from an E&P reader:
I couldn't agree more with Ted Rall's cartoon questioning Pat Tillman's hero credentials. (See "Ralls' 'Tillman' Cartoon Pulled by MSNBC.com".)
I am a combat veteran of Vietnam and the first Gulf war and retired Army chief warrant officer. My military service and duty to America spanned over 32 years. I also have a son that just recently returned from a year's combat service in Iraq.
I stand strongly on my belief that I have a right to protect my family, property, and borders of this country. However, I have no right (and neither does my son) to kill and murder for government.
How ignorant and absurd many Americans believe that the conflict we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, some 6,000 miles away, have something to do with protecting our freedoms (what's left of them).
Jess Salazar
Cabot, Ark.
Mr Salazar, would you describe your son as an "Idiot" or a "Sap", as Rall did Pat Tillman?
No doubt you believe that your son joined the combat service in Iraq in order to kill Arabs, as Rall stated about Tillman?
Perhaps you would care to list a freedom that you have lost recently?
I don't buy it--sounds like another guy with Micah Wright credentials.
What a Twit!
I'm pretty late to the fair on this one, but I just discovered the execrable writings of Greg Mitchell, the editor of Editor & Publisher. E&P covers the newspaper business, but apparently Mr Mitchell feels it should be leading the industry in terms of foreign policy coverage.
You guessed it. Mitchell is against the war. On May 7th, he decided that the American newspapers were not bold enough, so he issued a call:
When Will the First Major Newspaper Call for a Pullout in Iraq?
Mind you, he's not starting an office pool, he's trying to prod somebody to do it.
After a month of uprisings in Iraq, an unexpected hike in U.S. casualties, and a prison abuse scandal that shattered goodwill in the Arab street, what do American newspapers have to say?
So far, not very much, at least in terms of advising our leaders how to clean up or get out of this mess.
Well, actually most of them do have an opinion on that topic, which is to stay the course (Republican newspapers) or stay the course and get the UN involved (Democrat newspapers). But since that is not Mr Mitchell's prescription, he decries the relative unanimity of opinion:
But then, they are not alone. Republicans have been cackling for weeks over John Kerry's inability to distinguish his position on the war from the president's -- after Bush agreed to bring into the picture the United Nations, NATO and anyone else who might bail us out.
The two candidates also seem to agree that sending more U.S. troops to Iraq might turn the tide. Most newspapers like that idea, too. Last month an E&P survey revealed that the vast majority of America's large newspapers favored this approach to Iraq: Stay the course.
But of course, they're all idiots, according to Mr Mitchell. The vast majority is always wrong! That's why newspaper editors need Mr Mitchell's publication, to tell them where they're going wrong.
There's no easy strategy for success, but the question is: are newspaper editorial pages ready to sustain that position now? And if that means calling for more troops, or remaining in Iraq at present levels indefinitely, are they willing to accept responsibility (along with the White House, Pentagon and Congress) for the continuing carnage and the unmentionable expense?
Two lies here. First, Mr Mitchell does think there's an "easy" strategy for success. Second, the expense will not be unmentionable; one suspects that Mr Mitchell mentions it quite often.
This, of course, must also be considered in the context of whatever other responsibility newspapers share for embracing the dubious pre-war claims on weapons of mass destruction and endorsing the invasion in the first place. In fact, one might argue that the press has a special responsibility for helping undo the damage.
Rolling my eyes here. When has the press ever accepted the blame for anything it caused with its editorial policy? "Dubious pre-war claims on (sic) weapons of mass destruction"? They were so dubious that everybody believed them. Hillary Clinton and others who would seem to have no interest in supporting Bush on this issue say they had intelligence that indicated the same thing. I won't criticize him for missing the sarin gas because that happened after this piece was written, but surely the fact that even Germany & France's intelligence services believed Saddam had WMD should concern him.
That is not to say that calling for a U.S. pullout from Iraq is the only moral, rational or political choice. But if newspaper editors are not going to endorse that -- then what is YOUR solution?
Of course, Mr Mitchell pretends not to be hearing the solution--stay the course, perhaps with more soldiers and help from the UN/Nato, but stay the course.
Reading this piece made me understand more some of the other twit-headed columns I've read in E&P.
Seven Little Hands for Iraq, A Big Hand for America
Eric Berger of the Houston Chronicle has more on the men who had their hands cut off by Saddam's men.
With their new prosthetics in place, the men immediately began shaking hands, smiling and hugging the specialists at Dynamic Orthotics & Prosthetics who made the limbs. They also celebrated the little triumphs. Aqar tied his shoes, and then untied them just to do it again. Others wrote their names.
Damn, is this a great country or what?
Four of Berg's Killers Caught--Updated
Lucianne is headlining this but no story so far.
Update: Here's the story. Unfortunately, the one who's still missing is Zarqawi.
Monday, May 17, 2004
When I Was a Yankee Fan
I grew up in suburban New Jersey, just 20 miles or so from New York City. I was not a sports fan until about 8 years old, when I started becoming fanatical about everything that interested me--sports, Hardy Boys mysteries, bicycling, you name it.
My dad was a Mets fan. The Mets were a new team, having been born in 1962 (this was 1963). So, like any good boy, I became a Mets fan like my dad. I was a pretty good reader by then and I devoured books on the sport. And I quickly realized from the books that the Mets were a terrible team, one of the worst of all time.
At the same time, the Yankees were still atop the baseball world. They won the World Series in 1962 (the last they would win for awhile) and they won the American League pennant in 1963. My friends, who were Yankees fans to a boy, would laugh when I told them that the Mets might finish as high as eighth this year (an overzealous sportswriter, obviously, as the Mets never finished as high as eighth before the miracle of 1969).
So 1963 goes on and the Mets are sucking really bad and the Yankees are still the Yankees and I'm beginning to waver under the influence of my friends. Maybe I should root for Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris and Whitey Ford and all those guys.
So one day I announced that I was transferring my allegiance at the dinner table. My dad said, gee, that's too bad, because I've got Mets tickets for Friday night. Of course I immediately swore undying allegiance to the Metropolitans.
Friday night rolls around and we go to the ballpark. Not Shea Stadium, but the OLD ballpark, the Polo Grounds. I vaguely remember that the ballpark was green all over--green seats, green grass, green girders. The Mets were playing the St. Louis Cardinals that day. Stan Musial was in his final season; I remember Dad telling me that he was a great ballplayer.
The Cardinals led the game 2-0 going into the bottom of the ninth. The Mets got runners on 1st & 2nd and the "Let's Go Mets" chant started up in the stadium. Duke Snider (playing his last season before the New York crowd) cranked a three-run homer into the right field seats, Mets win 3-2 and one little kid is a Mets fan for better or worse.
Of course it was mostly worse for the next few years. Fortunately the Yankees did were not tempting. In 1963 they lost to the Dodgers in the WS, while in 1964 they made their last gasp and fell short in seven games to the Cardinals.
After that, the Yankees sucked for awhile--well, more than awhile. It was the era of Hector Lopez and Ross Moschitto and Roger Repoz. Bobby Mercer when he looked like he was never going to hit. And the Mets just continued to suck and then one year I was up at my grandparents' lakefront house in August and I noticed that the Mets were in second place, about 8 games behind the Cubs and I started paying attention more and the Mets won just about every game they played done the stretch to scorch the Cubs by about 9 games at the end of the season. They demolished the Braves and then stunned the country by winning the last four out of five games from the Baltimore Orioles.
It was amazing. In 1973 they got into the playoffs despite having a barely winning record. Of course, they won the NL pennant and took the Oakland A's, who were in the middle of a three-year run as World Champs, to the seventh game.
They managed to play fairly well after that, but this was when fairly well didn't do it against teams winning 100 games. In 1976 they went 86-76, a respectable showing. They were 15 games behind Philadelphia, which lost in the playoffs to the Big Red Machine. Meanwhile the Yankees had suddenly become competitive. They won the AL East in 1976, then jolted the KC Royals with a bottom of the ninth homer by Chris Chambliss. (Whose daughter went to my high school, althought it was years after I was there).
They lost horrifically to the Reds, but my interest was piqued when they acquired Reginald Martinez Jackson that offseason. Reggie was, as the cover of Sports Illustrated had proclaimed, a SuperDuperStar. A lot of people scorn him, but I don't see how you can ignore the fact that he was clearly the best player on many championship teams, and that he performed particularly well in the big games.
So the Yankees go on to a great season while the Mets really start to stink. By this time I'm in my senior year of college. When the old man gets tickets to games, he and I don't go together, it's me and a couple buddies, and we usually get tanked during the game. The Yankees appealed to the lout in me--why watch the Mets, they weren't going anywhere, let's go watch the Yankees try to win a championship.
And of course they do, with Reggie providing fireworks. The following year I was finally out of school and working in New York City. The Yankees made an incredible comeback to tie the Red Sox, but there was a one-game playoff. I remember half the office was listening into Camelia's brother, who was narrating the game for us. Then I got lucky. The boss came around and noticed that my desk was perfectly clean. He asked if I was looking forward to catching the end of the game, and I of course nodded. "Why don't you get out of here now?" he said. So I did and I got to the Madison B&G just in time to see Bucky Dent foul one off his foot. I turned around and got a beer and when I turned back Dent hit a three-run homer into the screen.
Yankees win another World Series. This time they spot the Dodgers the first two games at Yankee, then come roaring back to win all three in LA and game six at home.
Next year the Yankees just aren't in it, and then Thurman Munson died, and everybody knew it was over. The Yanks managed to pull one more AL pennant out in 1981, but by then Reggie was gone and they gave away a series in which they had won the first two games.
By then I had moved out West. I rooted for the Yankees to be sure (the Dodgers were hated in Northern California), but that was about it for the Yankees and me. The 1977 & 1978 teams were fun to root for, but they're nowhere near the 1969 or 1986 Mets to me.
Another Good Military Blog
The Green Side is mostly made up of emails home from a Major in the Marines to his dad. Great information, highly recommended. Here's a sample:
The Bronze Star and promotion are no big deal. Without being falsely modest, I was doing my job and many guys who did as much or more will have gone unrecognized.
The diplomatic efforts ongoing are a necessary part of our overall efforts to stabilize Iraq. You are correct that the corporals and sergeants are none too happy about some of the perceived bureaucracy but at the end of the day we understand that it is part of the democratic effort. Believe me, we will take no chances with our Marines and will be prepared to destroy any threat that surfaces during these patrols.
I got hunch thirty years from now this guy is NOT going to have a license plate that reads BRNZ STR1. Thanks for your service, and stay safe, Dave!
Hat Tip: The Daily Blogster
Downsize This!
Oh, Those Weapons of Mass Destruction!
The sarin story.
"The former regime had declared all such rounds destroyed before the 1991 Gulf war."
It is the first time chemcial agents have been found in Iraq since the US-led war began.
Sunday, May 16, 2004
Is Franken On the Ropes?
Drudge pointed us to Dead Air America's site for selling crappy, overpriced merchandise. Interestingly, there is NO Franken Merchandise available. Knowing Air America's business acumen, I suspect this means that they sold so much of it, that they decided to stop carrying it.
No, actually it means that O'Franken isn't going to be a factor for much longer. Randi Rhodes, who may be foul but at least seems to know what she's doing behind a microphone, is the only AA personality being hawked at this point.
Dead Air America: 4% of Products Made In USA
Drudge highlighted that they're selling thongs. The hilarious part is that they're selling 23 items, and ONE is advertised as made in the USA! And guess what? Just to make it perfect, it's a tee shirt that they want $25 for!
The Night of March 30th
Climatologist Patrick J. Michaels has a superb kayo of the junk science behind The Day after Tomorrow.
The movie makers maintain that much of this has already started. Disaster is heading our way pronto. The picture's Web site reminds us, for instance, that just last May, we had a record number of tornados for one month, and that more than half of the deaths that occur in hurricanes now are due to inland floods rather than coastal damage.
Both these observations prove either that "The Day After Tomorrow" is full of high-tech distortion, or that the movie's makers live in a reality-free environment. Here are the facts: The number of tornadoes is going up because of dramatic improvements in detection technology. As the first weather radar network went online in the 1960s and '70s, tornados rose in proportion with the increase in the number of stations. They then leveled out until the newer-generation Doppler radars became operational in 1988, when the number of twisters again rose proportionally.
Great article. Hat tip to Instapundit.
Detroit Tigers Update
Through today, the Tigers are 18-19, a .486 winning percentage. If they win games at the rate of a .472 victory percentage for a 77-85 season, they will set the record for the greatest turnaround in one year.
Unlike last year, the Tigers do not lack for individual stars. Pudge Rodriguez is leading the league in RBI, while compiling the fifth highest batting average. Rondell White is tied for second in the lead in RBI. Mike Maroth has won 4 games already.
Saturday, May 15, 2004
Doogie Howser, PFC
Marine Corps Moms has the story of young genius in the Marines.
Television shows about child geniuses have captivated American people for decades: "Doogie Howser, M.D.," "Malcolm in the Middle" and even Cartoon Network's "Dexter's Laboratory" have captured hearts of nearly everyone that watches. One show, however, may never exist: "Pfc. Billy McCulloch, U.S. Marine."
McCulloch, 18, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry before he was old enough to vote.
Wonderful Email on Tillman from the Front Lines
From Blackfive:
I have been thinking a lot about Pat Tillman for the last few days.
We all heard about his death shortly after it happened. There was a tremendous ripple effect throughout all ranks that was quite sobering. A great American was lost. Such is a dying breed: A man whose honor and loyalty exceeded well beyond the façade of patriotism represented by rain-drenched American flags we all saw hanging in front of houses for the few short months following September 11, 2001; a man who acknowledged that his good fortune in life existed only through the sacrifice of generations before him; a man who awoke every morning thankful to be an American and recognizing the distinction between the rights protected by the Constitution and the privileges many Americans think we deserve.
Read it all.
Friday, May 14, 2004
Helping an Old Lady Cross the Street
Chris Carter from Watkinsville, Georgia:
The elderly woman got stuck in a haze of smoke and bullets as she tried to cross a bridge south of Baghdad.
Capt. Chris Carter did not hesitate. He ordered his Bradley armored vehicle onto the bridge while he and two men followed on foot.
Taking cover from Iraqi bullets behind the bridge's iron beams, Carter tossed a smoke grenade for cover and dashed toward the crying woman.
Then the 31-year-old company commander pointed his M-16 rifle and provided cover for his men to carry the wounded woman to the safety of an ambulance.
Special Delivery
Here's a nice one.
Sgt. Gary Hughes remembers it was a scorching day in southern Iraq when he noticed a woman cloaked in a black chador slumping to the floor, holding her stomach.
Taking a break from handing out water bottles, Hughes, 27, soon realized the young Muslim woman was pregnant. Worried she was losing the baby, he said he slung his rifle on his back and swooped her into his arms.
"It all happened so fast," said Hughes, the physical training instructor for Britain's 2nd Royal Tank Regiment. "I ran to the hospital as fast as I could -- about 200 meters."
About the Name of this Blog
I've mentioned this before, but that was when I had no site meter and probably was not getting any traffic at all. The Brainster name is not intended to be any kind of a boast. I used to debate politics on Usenet with the somewhat self-deprecating name of Brain Death. When I started chatting on IRC I used the same name (shortened to BrainDeth). But IRC asks you for a backup name, and I chose "Brainster", as in the original nickname, modified as that guy in the SNL skit would do--"Hey, it's the Brainster, Brainaroonius, BrainMeister." When I decided to try blogging, I found that BrainDeath.blogspot.com was taken, so I just used my old backup name.
An Atrocity at Abu Ghraib You Won't Be Seeing On TV
Daniel Henninger at the WSJ has the story.
As perfect justice, the story in fact begins in Abu Ghraib prison, in 1995. With Iraq's economy in a tailspin, Saddam arrested nine Iraqi businessmen to scapegoat them as dollar traders. They got a 30-minute "trial," and were sentenced, after a year's imprisonment, to have their right hands surgically cut off at Abu Ghraib prison.
But a TV producer named Don North got an idea, and got some help from a Houston neurosurgeon named Dr Joe Agris.
Dr. Agris saw that the Abu Ghraib "surgeries" were a botch. They'd cut through the joining of the wrist's carpal bones, "like carving a Turkey leg." Saddam's doctors did nothing to repair the nerve endings, which left the men with constant real and "phantom" pain. Drs. Agris and Kestler had two preliminary tasks: Repair the nerves, and, alas, take another inch off the men's lower arms, to leave a smooth surface for attaching their new prosthetic "hands." They worked for two days operating on the seven men, who then took a week to recover before receiving their new hands.
Those devices were donated by the German-American prosthetic company Otto Bock, at a cost of $50,000 each. They are state-of-the-art electronic hands, with fingers, which respond to trained muscular movements. The rehabilitation and training is being donated by two other Houston companies, TIRR and Dynamic Orthotics. The Iraqi men are in Houston now, spending five hours a day learning to use their new right hands.
But... it doesn't contribute to destroying the Bush administration, so:
This crime deserves condemnation from international medical societies, such as the U.N.'s World Health Organization, or the Red Cross. And Don North's film indeed should be seen--but may not be. After two months of trying, no U.S. broadcast or cable network will take it. This is incredible. TV can run Abu Ghraib photos 24/7 but can't find 55 minutes for Saddam's crimes against humanity?
Interesting Site of the Day
You never know what will pop up when you do a Technorati search to see who's linked to your blog. I found a site named Wired Pig had linked to my post on Nick Berg's death. It's from a former cop (I would never use the word "pig" myself, but maybe it's like the "N" word--okay to use if you're in the group, not okay for outsiders), who's now a jail officer. Pretty interesting site from an interesting (and at times brutally honest) guy.
The Strange Case of Nick Berg--Regular Updates
The young man who was beheaded in that disgusting video turns out to be quite an enigma. His father is apparently a left-wing whacko:
Berg described the Patriot Act as a "coup d'etat." He added: "It's not the same America I grew up in."
I've discussed these attitudes before. The left wing can never quite come to terms with how it feels about America's past. Most of the time, they think it was awful--filled with racism, and sexism and exploitation of the workers. But mention the Patriot Act, and suddenly the tune becomes "They're changing my country!"
"My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This administration did this," Berg said in an interview with radio station KYW-AM.
Well, of course, blaming the people who actually committed the crime is not nuanced enough for Mr Berg.
In the interview from outside his home in West Chester, Pennsylvania, a seething Michael Berg also said his 26-year-old son, a civilian contractor, probably would have felt positive, even about his executioners, until the last minute.
"I am sure that he only saw the good in his captors until the last second of his life," Berg said. "They did not know what they were doing. They killed their best friend."
This betrays a simple misunderstanding of Arab terrorists. Nick Berg was a Jew and an American, ergo he was the enemy of the terrorists.
And what about this?
At one point during the bus ride, Berg said, the man sitting next to his son asked if he could use Nick's laptop computer.
"It turned out this guy was a terrorist and that he, you know, used my son's e-mail, amongst many other people's e-mail who he did the same thing to," Berg said.
Government sources said Berg gave the man his password, which was later used by Moussaoui, the sources said.
Update: How about this quote from the elder Mr. Berg:
"Nicholas Berg died for the sins of George Bush and (Defense Secretary) Donald Rumsfeld," Michael Berg, visibly upset, told ABC television.
"The al-Qaeda people are probably just as bad as they are, but this administration did this," he said.
AQ just as bad as Bush and Rumsfeld? CAIR will no doubt be protesting this hate speech soon!
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Dead Air America--Too Successful to Keep Sales Offices Open
That's the spin they're offering Reuters.
Air America has shut its sales offices in Los Angeles and Chicago and is recasting its business plan, the network's president said on Wednesday as troubles beset the liberal talk show network.
Rather, Sinton said Air America has found success with traditional affiliate relationships, under which it provides about 20 hours of programing per day in many cases in exchange for the ability to sell a certain number of minutes per hour of advertising.
"The business model has changed with our on-air success. The fact that we are moving the needle so quickly with affiliates has surprised us and negated the need for us to control our own stations," Sinton said.
More Heroes
Amy Ridenour has another good email from Iraq.
I ask that the American people be brave. Don't fall for the spin by the weak and timid amongst you that are portraying this battle as a disaster. Such people are always looking for our failure to justify and rescue their constant pessimism. They are raising false flags of defeat in the press and media. It just isn't true.
Read it all.
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Email from A Hero
Blackfive has an email from the sandbox that should be required reading for everybody who's discouraged and downhearted about our efforts. Here's just a snippet, but read the whole thing.
We're reading that everyone back home is starting to lose faith in our efforts in Iraq. The last CBS poll put the numbers under 50% for the first time. I know that doesn't mean a loss in support for the troops, but supporting "the troops" while not supporting the mission doesn't do much for us. If we're over here for nothing then vague "support the troops" statements carry little weight.
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
More Heroes
Blackfive has a whole series of posts on people we should know.
Another Hero
Marine Captain Brian R. Chontosh
Captain Ed points out this story of heroism in Iraq:
While leading his platoon north on Highway 1 toward Ad Diwaniyah, [Marine Capt. Brian R.] 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.
Chontosh was awarded the Navy Cross.
To earn a Navy Cross the act to be commended must be performed in the presence of great danger or at great personal risk and must be performed in such a manner as to render the individual highly conspicuous among others of equal grade, rate, experience, or position of responsibility.
Let's Hope CBS Got Good Ratings
Because they have this to answer for:
A video posted Tuesday on an Islamic militant Web site appeared to show a group affiliated with al-Qaida beheading an American in Iraq (news - web sites), saying the death was revenge for the prisoner-abuse scandal.
The video showed five men wearing headscarves and black ski masks, standing over a bound man in an orange jumpsuit who identified himself as an American from Philadelphia.
After reading a statement, the men were seen pulling the man to his side and cutting off his head with a large knife. They then held the head out before the camera.
I'd hate to think he died for nothing. Here's hoping that CBS sold a lot of laundry detergent during their 60 Minutes II feature.
Hat Tip: Captain's Quarters.
The Less Remarked Photos of Iraqis and US Soldiers
As Drudge points out, you won't see this one on 60 Minutes:
Monday, May 10, 2004
Book Report: Director's Cut by Roger L. Simon
I have been a regular reader of Roger L. Simon's blog and occasional contributor to the always challenging discussions that follow his posts. I remember seeing the late 1970s movie "The Big Fix", which was written by Roger and featured Richard Dreyfuss, who had recently won a Best Actor Oscar for his role in "The Goodbye Girl". I loved the way the movie brought back memories of the 1960s, an era that I had barely missed being old enough to really enjoy, as I turned 15 the year it ended.
Anyway, I have a readers' group that meets monthly and this time it was my turn to pick a book or series of books (we're pretty serious readers, so if the books are fairly short, as Roger's are, we'll commonly read 2-3 of them each, trying to hit on one or two that everybody reads, but also overlapping a bit so that everybody has a little extra to bring to the conversation).
I decided to start my reading of the Moses Wine series with the most recent entry, Director's Cut. At first, I had a hard time keeping from smiling as I read, because Wine is clearly closely based on Roger himself. It was amusing to read of the one-time 1960s radical who now "found myself nodding approvingly at the utterances of our Attorney General [John Ashcroft]...." Exactly the way Roger might describe himself. Wine is also a Lakers' fan (as is Roger) and the book contains lots of internet references. Indeed, I expect in the next instalment of Wine's adventures to find him looking for assistance via his blog.
Plot synopsis: Moses Wine is hired to provide security for a film being shot in Prague that is apparently the target of terrorists intent on shutting it down. Through a series of circumstances, he also becomes responsible for directing the film. Can he figure out why the movie is under attack before a major disaster hits Hollywood?
The Good: The story is excellent, with lots of local color, and a sprinkling of the inside-Hollywood stuff that an experienced screenwriter can provide. The climax is exciting and vivid. There is a running gag throughout the book that kept cracking me up whenever it returned. The terrorist angle makes the book compelling.
The Bad: Miles remarks at one point that the insurance firm which hired him to protect its completion bond on the movie will go bankrupt if shooting isn't completed on time. That's not very good insurance, even if it is good motivation.
The Bottom Line: A very entertaining and fast-paced read. Although the politics are what drew me to Roger's writing in the first place, he doesn't hit you over the head with it. There is a saying that the first chapter sells this book and the last chapter sells the next; Roger has clearly sold his next book with the thrilling (and, dare I say it--relevant) ending.
Rich Johnston writes in CBR that DC is assigning a new writer to the upcoming Vigilante series. He assumes that Micah Wright was bounced because he was found to have lied about being an Army Ranger, but does point to earlier qualms by DC about the project:
The book had the central character eschewing taking down street criminals or organized crime, but blowing away what he saw as corporate criminals. Vigilante was to have been acting as a lethal enforcer against the most heinous thieves of all - those in the suits and ties.
Sounds like great fun, eh? Reminds me of that crappy character Anarky who popped up in the Batman stories for awhile. He was opposed to "corporate criminals" too. Although Anarky was quite evil, there were regular murmurings from the supporting characters about "however much we might support his goals, his means are deplorable".
The Iraqi Prison Story
I confess to finding the whole thing a little less than compelling. The latest "outrage" is that the guards used dogs to intimidate the prisoners, and that one of the prisoners was even bit by a dog.
Elsewhere in the report it became clear what Kimbro would not do: American soldiers, Taguba said, used "military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee."
Funny, I had always heard that one of the first things a reporter learns is that "Dog Bites Man" is not a story. Except when it can be used against President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, I suppose.
John Moore has quite a good post on the whole situation over at his blog.
Sunday, May 09, 2004
Why You Shouldn't Pay Attention to Baseball Statistics in May
Just took a look at this season's combined American League statistics. I looked at every team's runs scored and runs allowed to date, and discovered something I thought was interesting. First of all, the simple calculation of Runs Scored/Runs Allowed correlates very well to winning percentage--88.5% correlation so far this year. Using the Pythagorean Theorum of Bill James, we can calculate an expected winning percentage for every team. For the season, this correlates slightly better with the actual won/lost percentage, at 89.9%.
So then I subtracted the actual wins from the expected wins via the Pythagorean Theorum. As might be expected, the best teams in the league have won a few more than their run ratio would indicate, while the worst teams have done poorer. The luckiest team in the American League are the California Angels, with 2.5 more wins than they would be expected to have, while the unluckiest team are the Royals, with 3.3 fewer wins than would be anticipated. Not by coincidence, the Angels have the best record in the AL, while the Royals have the worst.
For awhile I labored to figure out a good name for the extra wins/losses, and I figured why not call it lucky wins--wins above expected is rather dry. Then I got the brilliant idea of comparing luck to the team's won/lost percentage so far this year. The correlation was 78.7%. In other words, there is a strong and positive correlation between "lucky wins" and overall winning percentage at this point in the season.
Team R RA Exp W% W L Act W% Lucky W
Angels 170 141 58.5% 20 10 66.7% 2.5
Athletics 137 146 47.1% 14 15 48.3% 0.3
Blue Jays 137 147 46.8% 11 18 37.9% (2.6)
Devil Rays 94 136 33.7% 9 19 32.1% (0.4)
Indians 142 163 43.7% 12 16 42.9% (0.2)
Mariners 120 141 42.7% 12 17 41.4% (0.4)
Orioles 144 127 55.7% 14 12 53.8% (0.5)
Rangers 167 123 63.6% 18 11 62.1% (0.5)
Red Sox 140 112 60.1% 18 11 62.1% 0.6
Royals 135 162 41.7% 8 19 29.6% (3.3)
Tigers 167 174 48.1% 14 15 48.3% 0.0
Twins 152 143 52.8% 16 12 57.1% 1.2
White Sox 145 139 51.9% 17 11 60.7% 2.5
Yankees 140 136 51.3% 16 13 55.2% 1.1
Correl W/Act W% 68.7% -51.6% 89.9% 98.9% -98.9% 100.0% 78.3%
Friday, May 07, 2004
Our Accomplishments in Iraq
Good article in the NY Post by Andrew Natsios, the administrator for US-AID on the accomplishments in Iraq:
* We have rehabilitated eight power plants and are installing three new ones. We are also replacing towers, stringing wires, rebuilding lines and installing new generators.
* We have played a key role in restoring Iraq's transport and communication systems. Among other things, we have repaired the Baghdad airport and the country's deep-water port. We have rebuilt bridges, improved rail service and repaired the fiber optic network.
* We expect child mortality and water-borne disease to drop sharply as a result of our commitment to repair and rehabilitate the water and sewerage system throughout the whole of the country. We are in the process of vaccinating 3 million Iraqi children. We are reequipping 600 health-care clinics, training doctors and nurses and distributing high-protein supplementary food rations to hundreds of thousands of pregnant and nursing mothers.
* USAID has also helped uncover mass graves where as many as 400,000 Iraqi victims of Saddam's genocide campaigns lie buried. Hundreds of thousands of others, including untold numbers of children, died from deliberate neglect, indifference and politically motivated deprivation.
And we're helping the Iraqi Human Rights Association inventory the mass murder that took place under Saddam. A spokesman of the group put things very well when he said that what Iraq needs most of all is "not technicians and engineers" - "but someone to rebuild our souls."
* Which brings us to USAID's efforts to rehabilitate and restructure the Iraqi educational system so that it can shed the legacy of four decades of totalitarian rule and enter the ranks of the civilized world as a fully modern and productive nation.
* We're also working to build democracy at the grassroots, empowering the many enlightened and talented people of Iraq, men and women, who were repressed and silenced under Ba'athist rule.
Dead Air America--Updated!
The most famous radio network in America that nobody's listened to since the first day is listing badly in the water. Drudge reports that it's missed payroll this week.
This could go down in history as one of the worst business decisions of all time, up there with the Edsel and IBM deciding to farm out the DOS and chip-manufacturing jobs to Microsoft and Intel. Anybody getting the feeling that Al Gore's investors are getting a little nervous?
Right Side Redux has scanned in a Dead Air America paycheck. "You're smart enough, you're good enough, and doggone it, people want to pay you!"
Thursday, May 06, 2004
On the Ride Home Today
Going along at a good clip (say 45 MPH) and I see a woman pulling up to a stop sign on the right, maybe 100 feet ahead of me. And I'm thinking, surely she's not going to try to pull out in front of me. But of course she does, and even worse, she doesn't hit the gas, so I've really gotta mash the brakes. And I'm all set to blare the horn, flip the bird and pass her at the first opportunity, maybe even cutting back in front of her a little closely.
And then I see the little bumper sticker.
My son is a United States Marine.
Man, I felt lower than low for even thinking what I'd thought. Next time I don't care if they've got a bumper sticker or not. I'm going to treat them like they've got one.
Link to the Obnoxious Cartoon on Pat Tillman
It's here. Sorry, just realized that somehow I'm the second result for that search on Yahoo, third on MSN.
There are better cartoons on the pathetic Ted Rall here and and here.
The Ted Rall Unemployment Project email list is here.
If you want solid political commentary from a conservative perspective, check out Kitty Litter. And if you want to see Kitty and I do a tag team on John F'ing Kerry, surf on over to Kerry Haters.
Get Out Your Hankies for This One
Photo by Lynn Faulker (father of the girl)
From the Cincinnati Enquirer:
Lynn Faulkner, his daughter, Ashley, and their neighbor, Linda Prince, eagerly waited to shake the president's hand Tuesday at the Golden Lamb Inn. He worked the line at a steady campaign pace, smiling, nodding and signing autographs until Prince spoke:
"This girl lost her mom in the World Trade Center on 9-11."
Bush stopped and turned back.
"He changed from being the leader of the free world to being a father, a husband and a man," Faulkner said. "He looked right at her and said, 'How are you doing?' He reached out with his hand and pulled her into his chest."
"I'm a pretty cynical and jaded guy at this point in my life," Faulkner said of the moment with the president. "But this was the real deal. I was really impressed. It was genuine and from the heart."
Hat Tip: Powerline via Captain's Quarters.
More Heroes
Ben Domenech has a good blog entry on some of the heroic actions by our men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There are thousands of Pat Tillmans fighting abroad today, men and women who have left behind all they hold dear to join this fight. There are thousands of them in every war, in every conflict - from Pearl Harbor to 9/11, that much has remained unchanged.
Amen, Ben.
Welcome Blade Forum Readers!
The post on the Salvadoran soldier saving his life and his buddies with a knife is below "Media Mutters" and "Lileks on Rall".
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Media Mutters
David Brock has a new blog out covering the abuses of the Right Wing Media called Media Matters.
Their very first post is called "Backdating the Recession" and it deals with unscrupulous efforts by the Republicans to convince people that the recession began during the Clinton Administration.
Now, it is true, as Media Matters goes into great detail in explaining, that the recession is considered to have begun in or around March 2001, about 2 months after President Bush was elected. The group that determines this is known as the National Bureau of Economic Research. However, as Donald Luskin points out, the NBER determined the starting date of the recession in November 2001, and several of the data that they may have relied on to make that determination have since been revised for the worse.
Most important, back then third quarter 2000 GDP growth was reported at 1.3% -- but now it's been revised all the way down to a negative 0.5%. NBER had no way of knowing that then.
But even if we accept the March 2001 starting date, does that mean that it's Bush's fault? No, because the forces in play to cause the recession had already started well before his inauguration.
Having worked in finance for most of my life, I always look at the Treasury Yield Curve. This is presented in graph form in every issue of the Wall Street Journal, so it's not as if its importance is unknown. The Yield Curve provides a graphic look at the tradeoff between term and rate.
(Note: the graph above is dynamic and may change over time, so the interest rates discussed may be different from what you see above if you're read this in the archives).
The graph above shows the current treasury yield curve. The numbers on the Y-axis are interest rates, and the numbers along the X-axis represent the term or length of time till maturity of the particular treasury. For example, looking at the black line on the chart, we can see that the yield (effectively the interest rate) for a 3-month treasury is somewhere between 0.75% and 1%, that the rate for a 6-month treasury is between 1% and 1.25% and that the rate for a 2-year treasury is between 2.25% and 2.5%. You can also see that as the maturity gets longer, the interest rate generally rises. This makes sense, as the longer one lends somebody money (even the US Treasury) the more risk there is.
The yields on long term treasuries, for example the 10-year and 30-year instruments, are determined by the market. In theory, the yield, or interest rate, has three components:
The safe rate (i.e., the rate the investor would anticipate given no inflation and no risk);
The inflation rate (because the investor does not want his return eaten up by inflation); and
The risk rate for the particular investment.
The shorter term rates (3-month and 6-month) are effectively set by the Fed.
Most of the time the yield curve looks something like the above. But sometimes, in order to battle inflation, the Fed is forced to raise short term interest rates enough that the yield curve becomes flattened, or even inverted, with the short term interest rates higher than longer term interest rates. This means the Fed is putting strong brakes on the economy.
As happened in the last year of the Clinton Administration. In January of 2000, the treasury yield curve was still normal, but quite a bit higher than today's rates--as of 1/14/00 the rates were 5.41% for 3 months (which I'll call the short term rate) and 6.69% for 10 years (which I'll call long term rates).
However, over the next six months things changed substantially. The 3-month yield moved steadily higher, finally reaching 6% just before the Fourth of July. Meanwhile, the 10-year treasury had dropped to 6%, making the yield curve virtually a flat line with a few small bumps. By August the 3-month was yielding a full 1/4% more than the 10-year. The yield curve was thus inverted, predicting recession ahead.
By September of 2000 the spread between the 3-month and the 10-year had widened to almost 6/10ths of a percent. The 3-month topped out on 11/6-11/7/00 at 6.42%, which was still 1/2% higher than the 10-year.
The brakes obviously worked. As Luskin remarks, real GDP growth crashed from 5% to 2% for the last two quarters of 2000, to 0% in the first quarter of 2000. It's quite obvious that the economy was cooling in the last quarter of 2000 under the effect of the inverted yield curve.
The Fed and the bond market began to realize that they had tightened too much and that the economy was slipping towards recession. So they both eased off on interest rates, but rates fell faster at the longer terms. By the end of December 2000, the 3-month was down to 5.89%, while the 10-year had declined all the way to 5.12%. Still a strong brake on the economy. By 1/19/01, the last trading day before the inauguration of President Bush, the 3-month had dropped to 5.24%, while the 10-year had risen slightly to 5.19%.
The next trading day after Clinton left office, the 3-month treasury yielded 5.23% and the 10-year finally inched above it again, yielding 5.25%. It was the first time that the shorter term rate had yielded less than the long term rate since 7/19/00. By the end of March, the short term rate had dropped to 4.3%, while the longer term rate was 4.93%.
How does the inverted yield curve work at predicting economic recessions? Pretty good actually. Obviously it predicted the last one. In mid-1989 it predicted a recession; the economy hit one in the third quarter of 1990. At no other point in the last two decades has the inverted yield lasted for more than a day or two; each time a recession followed.
IOW, a recession was largely inevitable.
Lileks on Rall
This cheered me up to no end:
But sometimes just being yourself is punishment enough. I have no idea if Mr. Rall is personally happy, although the one time I met him he didn’t strike me as a jolly old soul. But it has to be hard to be happy when one carries around so much bile and rage. It’s tiring. Anger wears you down, especially when your anger doesn’t seem to accomplish anything.
Yep, that's the problem with being a leftie. Everything's an outrage, and the only time you can smile is when you imagine a hero dying.
A Story of Individual Heroism in Iraq
Corporal Samuel Toloza
NAJAF, Iraq — One of his friends was dead, 12 others lay wounded and the four soldiers still left standing were surrounded and out of ammunition. So Salvadoran Cpl. Samuel Toloza said a prayer, whipped out his knife and charged the Iraqi gunmen.
In one of the only known instances of hand-to-hand combat in the Iraq conflict, Cpl. Toloza stabbed several attackers swarming around a comrade. The stunned assailants backed away momentarily, just as a relief column came to the unit's rescue.
Update: Captain Ed has a good story on heroism in Afghanistan.
Ted Rall Put In His Place--Updated
This is really a good parody. Hat tip: A Small Victory.
Updated: Here's another good one. Hat tip: Liberal Utopia.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
O'Reilly Vs Rall
Missed it while driving home, caught the replay a couple hours later. O'Reilly missed the obvious chance to nail him with that first panel, and then allowed him to rattle off the usual leftist drivel. Rall actually looked quite comfortable there, like a guy who knew he should have been knocked out and instead managed to dazzle a bit with his footwork.
ARGGGHHHH!
Update: The good news is that I appear to be the only one who saw it that way. I got an email from reader Gayle, who felt that O'Reilly gave Rall plenty of rope with which to hang himself, and Laura Ingraham's radio show had the same take. I'm a pessimist at times; remember that when reading my stuff.
Gorevision--Coming to a Four Digit Satellite Channel Near You
Captain Ed riffs off AlGore's announcement that his group has completed the purchase of a cable TV network on which to launch his new youth-oriented programming. Gork's stated goal is to "focus on public affairs and entertainment for 18-to-34-year-olds and it will not have a political affiliation". Given that, I think we could expect a program schedule like the following Saturday lineup:
8:00 AM FlipFlopMan teaches kids an important lesson about revising positions in light of changing political reality.
9:00 AM Democratic Hero Cartoons. In this week's episode, Ted Rall fights valiantly against the forces of modern day McCarthyism, and beats up a couple Rangers, just for fun! Plus KerryMan creates 10 million jobs his first day in office as the France agrees to become the 51st state, but evil CheneyBurton Corporation plots to steal his promised middle class tax cut.
10:00 AM Prison Beach Volleyball. Felons today, Democratic voters tomorrow.
11:00 AM Neocon Watch. Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd debate whether a candidate's favorite rock and roll album is signicant in deciding for whom to vote. Madonna and Rob Reiner guest.
12:00 Noon WNBA action. Teams TBA.
2:00 PM Mr Ed. Ed runs for president but loses to a horse he considers his social and intellectual inferior.
2:30 PM The Munsters. Herman runs for president, but loses to a man he considers a stiff.
3:00 PM The Addams Family. Lurch runs for president, but loses to "Thing".
3:30 PM The Barbra Streisand Show. Guests James Brolin, Rosie O'Donell, Susan Sarandon and James Brolin.
5:00 PM Moderate Young News. Former porn star and AIDS victim Laura Roxx reads the news while stripping.
6:00 PM WNBA rebroadcast: See Noon
8:00 PM Veepstakes Reality Show. See 16 men and women debase themselves horribly in order win the title of John Kerry's lapdog. This week: 13 of the contestants shock the hosts by resigning from the show before it begins filming. Could Kucinich win it?
9:00 PM Best of Saturday Night Live: Spotlight on Al Franken.
9:05 PM My Friend Fidel. Oliver Stone shows the scenes that HBO cut from his last movie.
11:30 PM Micah Wright's Truth.
11:31 PM The Wit & Wisdom of Ted Rall.
11:32 PM Evening Signoff: the Iraqi National Anthem.
Rall Up for Cartooning Award
Reader Clyde McKenney let us know that Ted Rall is up for a Reuben Award for editorial cartoons from the National Cartoonists Society.
Here is a list of the members who have websites. As you can see, there are far too many to get email addresses from. What I'd suggest is going to a couple of the websites of cartoonists you know, see if you can get an email addy and send them a quick note. The URL for Rall's libel against Tillman is here.
Rall's competition is the odious (but talented) Tom Toles and the somewhat annoying Mike Luckovich. Luckovich won recently, so there may be a "It's somebody else's turn" attitude among voters. The good news is that a lot of these cartoonists (judging from their photos) are older folks, to whom the notion of patriotism may not be offensive. Oh, and don't send email to any of the creators with an asterisk before their name; they are deceased.
Speaking of Heroes...
There is a great post about some uncommon folk in Iraq over at Captain Ed's blog.
Welcome A Small Victory Readers!
The Ted Rall Unemployment Project is just a few posts below. Thank you for your support, and please, if you know of any publications which are not listed which carry Rall's "work" please let me know in the comments section and I will add them.
Ted Rall=Ellsworth Toohey
In the Ayn Rand novel, The Fountainhead, Howard Roark is opposed by Ellsworth Toohey, a newspaper columnist. Toohey is a collectivist whose goal is to tear down any heroes that emerge. Because heroes are unique and admired, they must be torn down before they become something that the average person aspires to be.
Ted Rall has a response to the emails he's been getting about the Tillman cartoon. Perhaps appropriately, his page is entitled "Search and Destroy".
My cartoon is a reaction to the extraordinary lionizing of Mr. Tillman as a national hero. First of all, the media's decision to genuflect to a cult of death is terrifyingly similar to the cult of Palestinian suicide bombers in the Middle East and the glorious coverage given by the Japanese during World War II to fallen kamikaze fighters. Nowhere has this excessive praise for the act of voluntary death been more extreme than in Mr. Tillman's case.
What a whack job! Tillman is nothing like a suicide bomber or a kamikaze pilot. He did not intend to die for his country, rather as Patton exhorted, he wanted to make the other guy die for his country!
Second, Mr. Tillman served an evil president and an evil cause. Anyone with an open mind after 9/11 could easily have learned the truth, that the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq occured instead of a war on terror, not as part of one. A person who planned to risk his life in combat should reasonably be expected to dig a little deeper rather than to fall for Bush's transparent lies. We all judge each other, and while Tillman's decision to sacrifice millions of dollars for his beliefs is admirable, his belief that killing the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan had something to do with defending America was not. At best, Tillman was foolish and misguided.
He grudgingly admires Tillman for giving up millions (what communist could fail to admire that!), but not for this president and this cause. Ellsworth Toohey could not have put it better.
Michele Catalano has a lot more on this topic, and I should have given her a hat tip yesterday.
Monday, May 03, 2004
The Ted Rall Unemployment Project--Updated III!
I strongly suggest that you make the focus of your email the first panel of the offending cartoon, in which Tillman is quoted by Rall as saying, "Never mind the fine print. Will I get to kill Arabs?" As offensive as the rest of the cartoon is, this is the part that Rall cannot defend, as he puts racist words in Tillman's mouth that Pat never said, never even hinted at. Be polite; remember that the editor will probably be on your side unless you turn him off with anger and profanity. And be sure to specify that you want to see Rall's cartoon pulled permanently from their publication.
Here's a sample email:
I am writing to you today about Ted Rall, a cartoonist who I believe is associated with your publication. In his May 3, 2004 cartoon, Mr Rall depicted Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who quit football to join the Army's Rangers and who was killed in Afghanistan a few weeks ago, as a racist, an "idiot" and a "sap".
Mr Rall certainly has the right to call Mr Tillman an idiot and a sap if he so desires. However, he does not have the right to put racist words in the mouth of Mr Tillman. In the first panel of his cartoon, Rall has Tillman saying, "Never mind the fine print. Will I get to kill Arabs?" Mr Tillman never said those words, or even hinted that was his motivation for enlisting, and it is disgusting and disturbing of Mr Rall to attribute those comments to a young man who can no longer defend himself.
I hope that you can see that Mr Rall is not the kind of cartoonist your publication cares to be associated with in the future.
Recipients:
Universal Press Syndicate:
Lee Salem
lsalem@amuniversal.com
MSNBC:
letters@MSNBC.com
GeneralComments@feedback.msnbc.com
Washington Post:
ombudsman@washpost.com
NY Times:
public@nytimes.com
Update: NY Times replies rather snidely:
As I noted, Mr. Rall's cartoons have not appeared in The Times for at least a month.
As we have many issues to deal with which have appeared in The Times, it would be helpful if in the future if you would make sure The Times has done something which concerns you before writing us about it.
Sincerely,
Arthur Bovino
Office of the Public Editor
The New York Times
Hartford Advocate:
Alistair Highet
ahighet@hartfordadvocate.com
San Jose Mercury News:
Update: San Jose Mercury News says they have not carried Rall for several years.
Los Angeles Times:
letters@latimes.com
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Online email submission link
Wilmington News-Journal
John H. Taylor
jtaylor@delawareonline.com
San Diego Reader
Online email submission link
Village Voice
Online email submission link:
Aspen Times:
mail@aspentimes.com
Newark Star-Ledger
Newark Star-Ledger says they have not run Rall's cartoons in a couple of years (probably since the 9-11 widows strip).
Lexington Herald-Leader
hleditorial@herald-leader.com
Sacramento News & Review
Tom Walsh
tomw@newsreview.com
Tucson Weekly
Jimmy Boegle
jboegle@tucsonweekly.com
Washington City Paper
mail@washcp.com
Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News
John Kirkpatrick
mailto:jkirkpatrick@pnco
Philadelphia Daily News
Online email submission link
Men's Health Magazine:
Online email submission link
(Hat tip to Chris)
If you can find some more places where he's being published and/or emails of contacts, please put them in the comments section.
Tigers Update
The Tigers are currently 13-12. They would need to go 64-73 in order to break the record for the greatest year over year turnaround in baseball history, currently held by the 1998-1999 Arizona Diamondbacks.
Good Tigers Weblog
Appropriately enough, entitled The Detroit Tiger Weblog. Solid analysis and commentary on the Motown Maulers.
Andrew Sullivan On Tillman
Go read.
Sunday, May 02, 2004
A Little Photo-Editing
Anti-Warrior Exposed as Fake Ranger
This is typical:
In the Style section last summer we profiled a Los Angeles writer named Micah Ian Wright, who'd just published a shrill antiwar poster book called "You Back the Attack! We'll Bomb Who We Want!" In his book, he described himself as a veteran of combat, a former Army Ranger whose experiences during the 1989 invasion of Panama turned him into a peacenik. In interviews with The Post and other media, he played up that background.
Wright, it turns out, is a liar. He never served in the military -- and confessed that last week to his publisher, Seven Stories Press, after we insisted on evidence of his service. Pursuing a tip from real Rangers who'd never heard of Wright, we filed three Freedom of Information Act requests with separate Army commands -- and last month finally confirmed that Wright never served.
As I have discussed in the past, this is how the left mainstreams itself--it lies. Mr Wright knew that he had greater credibility as an anti-warrior if he claimed to have been inside the military himself. Typical of these wannabe heroes, he was not satisfied claiming he was a soldier. No, he had to be one of the elite soldiers, a Ranger. Let me tell you, you meet up with somebody who says he was a cook or a radioman or in a supply unit, odds are he's telling the truth. You meet a Ranger or a Navy Seal, and the odds are quite a bit less likely.
The story states that Wright promised to publish an apology on his website. So far no sign of it. Update--Here's the first version, here's the second.
Comic Book tie-in: Wright has written about 30 issues of Stormwatch: Team Achilles. Not familiar with the title, but his bio also notes that he did or is doing a 6 issue miniseries on the 1980s DC character The Vigilante.
Oh, and just so there's no confusion: I am not a vet myself. This story tied more into two longtime interests of mine--comics and lying lefties, and of course a recent interest of mine, the Army Rangers.
Update: Lots of attention to this story in other blogs. Turns out that, in typical leftist style, Wright used his supposed service as a club with which to beat his critics.
What blows my mind about this is the shallowness of thought used by Wright and others (particularly Democrats who thought Kerry was electable). They don't really think that only those who served in the military can criticize the use of the military, do they? Of course not, because then there'd be nobody to protest the war. But they do vaguely sense that their opposition would have greater credibility on the right if they can say they fought. Nobody then will think they're one of the mindless anti-military crowd, although that is exactly what they are.
Note too that in the both versions of the apology, Wright claims that his decision to reveal his fraudulent claims is guilt, especially following the death of Pat Tillman. However, the initial story I linked to above, makes it clear that it was actually the fact that the Washington Post had the scoop on his "Stolen Valor", and his initial apology, mentioning Tillman, was backdated to April 15th. Unfortunately for Wright, he backdated it a bit too much, as Tillman's death was reported on April 23rd.
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