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Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Innumeracy Strikes!
From an article on sales of the Clinton tome:
The price at both stores was $21, or 30 percent off the $35 cover price; the audio book, read by the author himself, was $24.50.
In fact, the book was 40% off the cover price.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Blogging Update
I will continue posting to Brainster's but the political race is heating up, so I will have far more posts on my political blog for most of the summer.
Another Hero
Sometimes you read these stories and you just shake your head in amazement.
Meet Private Dwayne Turner, a combat medic in Iraq.
"I moved to (my vehicle) just before the first grenade came over the wall," Turner said. "The blast threw me even further into the vehicle, and I took on some shrapnel."
Ignoring his own injuries, Turner ran to the front of his vehicle and saw a soldier with eye injuries.
"I checked him out, and tried to get him into a building," Turner said. The other two medics established a triage system under the cover of a building while Turner ran back outside to bring more soldiers into the makeshift clinic.
"I just started assessing the situation, seeing who was hurt, giving them first aid and pulling them into safety," he said, downplaying his actions on that day.
Turner, his legs wounded by shrapnel in the initial attack, was shot at least twice while giving first aid to the soldiers.
That is one brave soldier. Thanks Private Turner!
Hat Tip: Captain's Quarters
Monday, June 21, 2004
Stephanopolous Grills Moore
Aaron Arnwine points us to George Stephanopolous' tough questioning of fictional filmmaker Michael Moore on Sunday's This Week. Best bit:
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you're also making leaps, and by doing that, aren't you doing exactly what you accuse your opponents of doing? A lot of people have said the Bush administration looked at the raw data, looked at the raw intelligence about weapons of mass destruction, but then cherry-picked it, selectively edited it, exaggerated parts, extrapolated parts. Aren't you doing exactly the same thing?
George does let him get away with a ridiculous lie about the Bin Laden's supposed financial support for the Bush family:
MOORE: I don't blame him for that. I don't blame him for that. Hey, if you gave me $1.4 billion, I'd take your call too.
But overall he does a pretty good job of deflating the gasbag.
Dead Air America
The AP and WSJ dissect the train wreck that is Dead Air America.
Mr. Visotcky wasn't the only insider in the dark about the company's problems. Many of Air America's investors and executives say they thought the network had raised more than $30 million, based on assurances from its owners, Guam-based entrepreneurs Evan M. Cohen and Rex Sorensen. In fact, Air America had raised only $6 million, Mr. Cohen concedes. Within six weeks of the launch, those funds had been spent and the company owed creditors more than $2 million.
What a shock! Liberals don't know how to run a business? Not without government subsidies, apparently.
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Michael Moore's Fans Reveal He Hates America
Get this:
In terms of marketing the film, Front Row is getting a boost from organisations related to Hezbollah which have rung up from Lebanon to ask if there is anything they can do to support the film. And although Chacra says he and his company feel strongly that Fahrenheit is not anti-American, but anti-Bush, “we can’t go against these organisations as they could strongly boycott the film in Lebanon and Syria.”
Can we turn the old saying around and conclude that the friend of my enemy is my enemy?
Saturday, June 12, 2004
Another Hero You Should Know
Meet Adam Sikes
With bullets flying and rockets exploding around him, Marine Staff Sgt. Adam Sikes charged into the enemy's lair alone and armed with only a rifle and grenades.
That daring effort saved the lives of men in Sikes' platoon, for which the 27-year-old Lake Zurich High School graduate was awarded a Silver Star, the third most distinguished medal for gallantry.
He is one of the first Marines involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom to receive the award. The U.S. Marine Corps has so far awarded only a handful of Silver Star medals during the war, officials said.
Unfortunately I could not locate a photo online. But he has our gratitude.
Thursday, June 10, 2004
The Greatest Yankee of All Time--Revisited
A friend and reader asked that I look again at the Yankees. I'll admit, I was not doing a terribly scientific job when I picked Yogi. I thought, well, Mantle had his great years, but he was injured a lot and Ruth played 7 years or so in Boston, so his entire career as a pitcher and about a year of his career as an outfielder are erased, and Dimaggio had a relatively short career partially because of the war, so the other great guys are gone, right? And my friend said, what about Gehrig?
The short answer is that the Yankees have of course a great competition for the title of the greatest of all time.
I used 1700 games played as a Yankee, a very high standard. Fourteen players have donned the pinstripes in MDCC contests, and they are for the most part the players you think of when you think of the Yankees--Mantle, Gehrig, Berra, Ruth, Roy White, Bill Dickey, Mattingly and Dimaggio. The guys just behind are not bad--Randolph, Crosettie, Rizzuto, Lazzeri and Bernie Williams all have over 1600 games, but they're just not credible candidates.
Ruth Barely misses leading the Yankees all-time in RBI, with 1,971 runners plated compared to Gehrig's 1,995. Mantle and Dimaggio are both around 1500. Ruth leads by a larger margin though in Runs Scored, with 1,959, first among Yankees to Gehrig's 1,888, and Mantle's 1,677 and Berra's 1,174.
You look at the sluggers and it's hard to avoid Ruth. These guys were all great, but Ruth had more runs and RBI combined than any of them, while accounting for fewer batting outs Gehrig is his only comp as a hitter, with 3883 combined runs and RBI compared to the Bambino's 3930. But Ruth made about 4700 outs at the plate, while Gehrig made almost 5300. Mantle can't compete against those two--he accounted for about 5700 outs while scoring and driving in 3186. Great numbers but not enough for this derby.
So it boils down to Ruth and Berra--they are different enough players that Berra can at least claim to hold his own as a far superior defensive stalwart.
But that's for tomorrow, as is the weeding down of the Yankee pitchers.
Monday, June 07, 2004
An Interview with Mr Berg
Bill at InDC Journal continues to impress with his great posts. Today he writes of his attendance at an International ANSWER rally against the war, and his opportunity to interview Michael Berg, the father of the young man who was beheaded by Al Qaeda operatives in Iraq.
Interestingly, Mr Berg finds the time to express anger at the Bush Administration for violating his son's civil rights, and for NOT violating his son's civil rights:
"These men purposely sped up their hate train when they saw Nick lying on the track, however, I have to hold the Bush administration accountable for denying my son his civil rights for the 13 days of his illegal detention. If they were going to take illegal action, instead of violating the heart of the Constitution of the United States of America, why didn’t they just illegally deport him from Iraq and let us prove who he was at home? Their callous behavior, in effect, tied him to the track until it was no longer possible to escape that speeding hate train."
Just as a note, the official story is that Nick Berg was held by Iraqi authorities, although he was interviewed by the FBI while in custody.
Sunday, June 06, 2004
Reagan's Death to Help Bush?
This story was pretty tasteless.
And get this bizarre quote from Willie Brown:
"They're going to try their best to get (Reagan) to lie in state in New York, to try and divert attention from the product they're trying to sell,'' Brown said. "They're going to try to sell the Reagan legacy as the product you're voting for. They're going to try to push Bush into the casket."
Saturday, June 05, 2004
D-Day
I don't precisely remember when I became fascinated in the subject of D-Day. The most likely moment is when I saw the movie The Longest Day. I remember being fascinated that they would have to transport so many cooks and mess tents (can't remember the exact number, but it was north of 10,000), and it was then that I began to realize that war was not just about the fighting, but about the supply and maintenance operations. When you're a kid you might "play war" but when you get hungry you go home for lunch. When you're in a real war you can't go home and grab a bologna sandwich.
For some reason I found that compelling. I won't pretend to be a real scholar on D-Day, but I have read books, seen movies, and played a fair number of computer simulations of the event.
Tomorrow is the anniversary and we will remember the heroes of the actual fighting part of the invasion. But on the day before the anniversary, let's talk about all the folks who risked their lives in support duty:
Here's a D-Day reminiscence from a corporal in the Third Canadian Postal unit.
Someone had heard what sounded like sub-machinegun bursts from the spire of the church and then we heard a shout that there was a sniper up there firing indiscriminately at whatever targets presented themselves. The eight of us gathered behind the hedge which was both high and thick and so close across the narrow road from the church that we were out of any line of fire. We all had our weapons with us of course ready for action and the man beside me, whose name I now remember was Ferguson, had a Sten gun. He was holding it pointed down, and I suppose either from excitement or nervousness, he pulled the trigger. The gun ripped off three or four rounds, one of which nicked the sole of my right boot. Another half inch and I would have been the first Postal Corps casualty and probably crippled for life.
Here's one about a communications group:
I became a member of a Forward Intelligence Unit (FIU) comprising 1 officer + 5 EM, engaged in operations against bypassed German pockets of resistance, this was mainly in the Gironde estuary.
Evelyn Kowalchuk tells her own story in audio (Win or Real) about evacuating wounded soldiers from Omaha Beach. Very moving--do not miss this one, but get the hankies out.
And just to remember that they also serve, here's one from the home front, from the town that lost more men that day for its size than any other, and from the sister who lost two brothers.
Thursday, June 03, 2004
Detective #150 Comments
The Batman story, "The Ghost of Gotham" is solid, with excellent artwork by Dick Sprang. Dick and Bruce attend a stage presentation of Macbeth on the third page. The major problem is that the plot is so convoluted that they devote 12 panels (the entire last two pages) to explaining how things happened. As usual, however, the background story is excellent. An expert mentions three famous ghosts, the Drury Lane Theatre Ghost (mispelled Dury), Jane Seymour of Hampton Court and Borley Rectory, known as the most haunted house in England. All of them, as you can see, exist and are considered famous now, 50 years later.
But by far the star of the show is the final Boy Commandos episode in Detective (the series staggered on for two more issues in its own mag before folding). The story is a very clever takeoff on the Around the World in 80 Days story, with the BCs required to circumnavigate the globe while using prescribed methods of transportation. It's a very enjoyable story, with a superb plot and excellent art.
Ted Rall Unemployment Project Gets Results!
Reader and fellow blogger Fred Schoeneman reports that MSNBC dropped loathsome Ted Rall in response to the outrage over his odious cartoon slandering the memory of Pat Tillman. Rall seems to think that the news that Tillman was hit by friendly fire means we should all apologize to Ted. Of course, those of you who were reading this blog know that the big objection to Rall's cartoon was over his putting racist words in Tillman's mouth.
I got a little discouraged about the TRUP when all I got back were comments that "We stopped carrying him ages ago". This cheers me up to no end!
You Won't Hear This Report from Dan Ratherbiased
National Geographic has an article on the Shiites of Iraq. Hugh Hewitt (returned from vacation) points to this paragraph, which does not appear in the on-line teaser for the story:
"By mid-January of 2004, 270 mass graves had been reported. The Free Prisoners Society estimates that five to seven million people 'disappeared' in the past two decades, the majority of them Shiites."
We mourn for our 800+ soldiers lost in Iraq, as we should. But don't let anybody tell you they died in vain, or for oil.
That's Why It's Pronounced Rooters
Dan Dickinson has a great article on the distorted coverage of the Iraq war by Reuters.
According to the "Trust Principles" posted on their website, Reuters is "committed to reporting the facts. . . . We do not take sides. . . . Reuters' journalists do not offer opinions or views." (Indeed, days after the September 11 attacks, Reuters took down the digital U.S. flag that was displayed outside its New York office in Times Square. It didn't want anyone to conclude that it supported the United States, as opposed to Osama Bin Laden.)
Best of the Web Today pointed us to this quote from Reuters:
Bush, who avoided combat in Vietnam while serving as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard, calls himself a war president for his re-election campaign against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran.
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
The Greatest Player in the History of the Montreal Expos
Added excitement as this selection will likely be final.
There are nine hitters with over 950 games played as an Expo; none of them had 1800 games. Tim Wallach leads with 1,767 games, 1,694 hits and 905 RBI. Tim Raines leads in runs scored with 947. Vladimir Guerrero paces the sluggers with 234 homers, nine more than Andre Dawson. Gary Carter is close to the lead in just about everything, plus he was Gary Carter behind the plate. In terms of runs plus RBI, Carter, Raines, Dawson and Wallach all ended up in a tight bunch from 1500-1666. Adjusted for the number of outs, Wallach drops back with .325 Runs +RBI/ Out, while the other three remain in a tight knot from .381 (Carter & Raines) to .393 (Dawson). One nice thing is that all three had very well-aligned careers. Dawson was an Expo from 1976-1986, while Carter played in Montreal from 1974-1984 and Raines from 1979-1990 (and briefly in 2001).
Overall, when faced with men who are similar offensively, I have gone with the best defensive player, and that's clearly Carter, who was probably the best catcher in baseball for much of his career. The pitchers don't have much to offer with the exception of Steve Rogers and Dennis Martinez.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
WWII Memorial Dedication
Bill at InDC Journal has a magnificent post concerning the dedication of the WWII Memorial this weekend. Lots of great photos, lots of war stories, lots of great reading. One of the best blog posts I can remember.
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