Scouting trip

I'll be on a blogging hiatis for the next week or so. I'm heading to Florida to watch a few spring training games.

Here is something to get you in a mood for baseball. One of the greatest comebacks in baseball history.
A couple of pictures of guys in mid-season form.

Yet, conservatives get accused of being intolerant

One of the many accusations the left levels against conservatives is that we are intolerant of those who are different. As with most of their claims it is another classic case of projection. Here is the story of a woman in the publishing industry fired after she admitted that she (gasp!) voted for President Bush and considers herself a Republican.

UPDATE: Chris Muir weighs in on this one:

Which party really commits vote fraud?

Here are some comments made by US House Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-Moonbat)

Just remember that in Florida 2000, the victims were black and Latino voters who were, who were, um, just so callously and openly denied the opportunity to cast their vote in a scheme that was cooked in a backroom by rich and powerful white people. And in 2004, with the electronic voting machines, your votes are at risk too.

You can visit LGF and watch the video. This is the same idiot who lost her seat for a couple years because even the goofs who normally vote for her couldn't stomach her comments after September 11th.

Coincidentally, the same day her incendiary remarks came to light, 5 Democrat operatives in Illinois were actually charged with paying people cash to vote for their candidate in the last election.

Add the Illinois fraud to the actions of Dem's in other states (Ohio, Wisconsin, etc) and I stick to my estimate that President Bush won reelection with 57-60% of the vote vice the 51.8% previously reported.

H/T to RWN for the link.

Some quick links

For those who say Terri Schiavo will feel nothing as she is slowly starved to death, I refer their attention to this article.

At this rate, Iraq will hopefully run out of terrorist before too long.

Twice previously I've discussed the futility of projecting performance of aging ballplayers. I swear I'm not picking on Barry Bonds he just happens to be the best active player and the projection for his future performance seemed outlandish to me. Well, yesterday he held a news conference to discuss his return from his recent knee surgery and didn't sound optimistic. Here's an article from ESPN by Buster Olney regarding Bonds and other players' quick decline after age 40.


Giant Japanese sub from WW II recovered off coast of Hawaii.

If you did this to your dog, you'd get arrested

Drudge is reporting that Terri Schiavo's feeding tube has been removed by order of Circuit Judge George Greer.

This is sad statement about the lack of respect we show for human life. This is not a matter of pulling the plug on a brain dead person in a permanent vegetative state. This woman is alive and on her husband's request a judge has ordered that she be starved to death. If this was the family dog you'd go to jail for intentionally starving it. Check out the web site Terri's Fight. They have videos showing her respond to questions from the doctor and responding to her parents.

If you believe in the power of prayer, now would be a good time to talk to the guy in charge.

If you can read these without laughing something is wrong with you.

Paul Katcher has compiled a list of the 100 Greatest Sports Movie quotes. Hilarious. Not all are gag lines as he slipped a couple tear jerkers into the list as well. Here is number 36. You have to click the link for the other 99.

36. "Sex and golf are the two things you can enjoy even if you're not good at them."
Tin Cup
If you're not good at either, though, you might have trouble finding playing partners.

Hattip to Aaron Gleeman for the link.

I bet they'll have interesting family reunions

What would you think of a guy who dumps his own wife and takes up with his brother's wife? To make it even worse this guy's wife actually donated a kidney to save his life a couple years back. If the marriage vows weren't enough to keep him loyal, I would hope giving up a body part to save his life might have earned a little loyalty.

Penalties for steroid use in baseball

Congress is holding hearings this week on steroid usage in baseball and seems concerned that baseball's new policy doesn't have stiff enough penalties to deter players from using steroids. While I think most congressmen are self-promoting fools and these hearings are a sham, I will agree that professional ballplayers have different motivations than the rest of us. Threaten me with a ten thousand dollar fine and you will modify my behavior rather quickly. My guess is ten thousand dollars has less importance to Jim Thome and his 17 million dollar a year contract. Chris at A Large Regular has an innovative answer to the question of what penalty would be stiff enough to influence players. The only problem is his plan fails to account for the Royals, Devil Rays, Rockies or Pirates.

Bonds needs additional knee surgery

A while back I ridiculed Bill James' career projection for Barry Bonds. My contention was mathematical formulae which fairly accurately predict future performance loses its effectiveness for older players. Well, an example of why you can't predict performance of atheletes after age forty is the fact that Bonds is undergoing additional knee surgery and will likely miss considerable playing time. You never get back missed at-bats.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

It is St. Patrick's Day today.



A little public service announcement - NO drinking before noon (then again it has to be noon somewhere, right?).

Confused about the saint we're celebrating? Check out these links:

Saint Patrick's biography.

More info.


St. Patrick's Day kid's games.

If you can't do the time don't do the crime.

The catch phrase "If you can't do the time don't do the crime" was part of the opening of Baretta on TV. Well, turns out not to be the case for Robert Blake, the star of the 70's crime drama. He was acquitted of murdering his wife today.

When statues fall you can be sure that governments will follow

This article details how in Lebanon a statue of late Syrian President Hafez Assad in the southern village of Qana was attacked on Thursday for the second time in two weeks, as anti-Syrian sentiment gains force.

We all remember the news accounts of Iraqi people toppling Saddam statues in May 2003. A little more than a decade earlier, falling statues of Lenin presaged the fall of the Soviet Union. Go back to the origins of our country and you'll find stories of people so aroused by public readings of the Declaration of Independence that a larger than life King George III came tumbling down and was melted and molded into over 42,000 bullets.

The Syrians are as oblivious to what is coming as King George III was in the 18th century. However, Bashar al-Assad (son of the former president whose statue fell) can't blame his ignorance on slow information flow over an Ocean expanse. He can look next door and see this sea of people demanding freedom.




Hattip to RWN for the links.

I guess this means it's time to get a new police chief.

The police chief of Middletown was ordered held without bail today on charges of driving drunk twice in one day.

He says he wants to make you rich.

Jim Cramer has a new show starting on CNBC tonight (6PM EST) called Mad Money. If it is anything like his radio show then it will quickly become "must see TV." For those unfamiliar with Mr. Cramer, he is a former stock advisor and hedge fund manager who now tries to make the stock market understandable for the little guy. If someone (CEO, CFO, BoD etc) is playing funny with the books you can count on Cramer slamming them for it.

What do you do if a terrorist comes to visit?

Well, if the terrorist in question is Gerry Adams and you're a Cincinnati councilman you give him the key to the city.

Before Adams' speech Saturday, Cincinnati City Councilman David Crowley gave Adams a key to the city.

What makes this even stranger is that for the first time in seven years even the normally deplorable Sen. Ted Kennedy has decided not to meet the leader of the money raising arm of the IRA.

What idiots!

Some Democrat activists have started a website called Time to Go Joe to raise money towards the objective of getting a "real" Democrat to replace Joe Lieberman as the U.S. Senator from Connecticut. Apparently, they are upset that Sen. Lieberman has been too supportive of our country in the War on Terror. The funniest thing is they actually have gotten people to donate money ($33,145.00 so far) to this futile enterprise. Incumbents don't lose primaries.

Are physical restraints for criminals unconstitutional?

The case of the criminal defendent in Georgia who overpowered a deputy and used the deputy's gun to kill several people including a judge should lead us to take another look at rules precluding restraints on defendents. Michelle Malkin has links to several past arguments on the subject. Morons (like the ACLU) have argued that seeing the defendent in shackles could cause the jury to pre-judge the case. Political correctness and excessive concern for criminal rights have hampered law enforement for decades and now have resulted in several deaths.

Condi speaks

Secretary of State Rice sat down for a lengthy interview with reporters from the Washington Times. Drudge and others have focused on two very small elements of the interview. If you read the headlines you would get the impression that she is running for president and pro-abortion. Well, that's very simplistic. Here is the portion of the interview dealing with presidential ambitions:

Mr. Sammon: So are you ruling it out?
Miss Rice: Oh, that's not fair, but ... I really can't imagine it.

Her response to the reporters attempts to pigeon hole her on abortion sounded pretty in line with the mainstream. Basically, she is morally opposed to abortion but does not want current law changed.

The majority of the article deals with foreign policy and is well worth reading.

Good thing there's no statute of limitations for murder.

Two former New York City police detectives face a federal court hearing in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Friday after being indicted on murder charges for allegedly acting as hit men for the Mafia more than 20 years ago. Read the rest.

Sarbanes to retire!

U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes, Democrat from Maryland has announced that he will not seek reelection next year. He will be best remembered for the Sarbanes/Oxley accounting requirements. Sarbanes is not considered the worst of the current bunch of Democrat senators. However, that is mainly because of those who are more vocal in their nuttiness (Kennedy, Byrd, Boxer, Dayton, Reid, etc) making him seem decent in comparison. A closer look at his voting record reveals him to fit in very well with that group. His votes show him to be extremely pro-abortion and hostile to protecting the unborn. Maryland is a fairly liberal state and it would be premature for us to count on picking up another senator to help fight the obstruction. His early announcement should make it easier for the Dem's to maintain control of this seat. Maryland's Lieutenant Governor, Michael Steele gave a very good speech at last years Republican Convention and is considered a rising star in the GOP. Hopefully, he will decide to run.

Shouldn't happen in America!

A week or so ago, we had the cold blooded murder of the husband and mother of a federal judge. Today, in Atlanta Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, his court reporter and a sherrifs deputy were killed by some scumbag.

AL CENTRAL Starting Rotations

I've chosen to separate the pitching staffs into two posts, starters and relievers. Health for pitchers is always a crapshoot and a major injury could dramatically change the ranking. In fact, in the time since I started drafting this article, C.C. Sabathia has pulled a muscle (somewhere beneath his fat) and may start the season on the disabled list. Minnesota is a clear number one at this position and Kansas City is a very clear last place. A reasonable argument could be made for any order of 2, 3, and 4th place. I went with Cleveland as second best rotation because of their depth.

1. Minnesota - The Ace of their staff is the reigning AL Cy Young award winner, Johan Santana. However, manager Ron Gardenhire has said he plans on Brad Radke as the opening day starter. Carlos Silva pitched much better in the second half last year which could be a precurser for a break-out season. Conversely, Kyle Lohse tailed off posting a 6.10 ERA after the All Star break. Joe Mays and Terry Mulholland will vie for the fifth starter position. Mulholland is 42 and Mays had a 6.30 ERA last year so the Twins will continue to look for other options for their fifth starter and a trade from their outfield depth is not out of the question. The Batter's Box has a look at recent Cy Young winners follow-up season in their season preview of the Twins.

2. Cleveland - C.C. Sabathia is slated to be the opening day starter. However, I don't believe there is much difference between starters one through five all are capable of more than 15 wins. Kevin Millwood was signed to a creative contract with incentives to stay healthy. Cliff Lee had two very different halfs last year. Did he just tire down the stretch or did opposing teams notice and exploit a flaw. Jake Westbrook would be my guess to take a step back this year. He was third in ERA last year so he could take a step back and still have a pretty good year. Scott Elarton is an enigma. Is he the lousy pitcher who went had no wins and 8 losses accompanied by a 8.33 ERA last year in the first half? Or is he the decent pitcher with a 4.12 ERA in the second half. Jason Davis and Kaz Tadano are waiting in the wings to fill-in if someone suffers an injury.

3. Chicago - This off season, Orlando Hernandez was added to an already decent group of pitchers. Mark Buehrle won 16 games last year but more importantly pitched 245 innings most in the American League. Freddy Garcia's won/loss record was much better after being acquired from Seattle but that was largely due to improved run support as his ERA was more than a run higher after leaving spacious SAFECO Field. Jose Contreras never provided the Yankees with what they expected when they signed him out of Cuba. Also, despite a couple good starts he didn't really turn his season around after being dealt to the White Sox (5-4, 5.30 ERA). Jon Garland has been pushed to the back of the rotation but I think by mid-season he will be pitching better than Contreras or Hernandez who are both getting long in the tooth.

4. Detroit - The Tigers' struggles over the last few year have hidden the fact that they have a very good group of young pitchers developing. The best of the bunch is Jeremy Bonderman who had a very good second half last year (5-3 with 2.33 ERA in last 8 starts) which I think point towards a breakout season in 2005. Jason Johnson at 31 is the old man of the rotation. I have to wonder if Johnson was hurting at the end of the season as he went 0 and 7 from the start of August with a 7.13 ERA. Additionally, Johnson had the 2nd highest home ERA in the American League which is odd since Comerica Park is considered a pitchers park. Mike Maroth bounced back from a 21 loss season in 2003 to be the Tigers most consistent pitcher. Nate Robertson will eat innings but never be considered better than a back end of the rotation type pitcher. Gary Knotts will get the first shot as the number 5 pitcher. Not sure how many runs it costs over the course of a season but Johnson, Robertson and Knotts are considered very poor fielding pitchers. In fact, in 2004 Robertson had the lowest fielding percentage (.853) of any AL pitcher. Bonderman will get some Cy Young votes but the rest of this group grade out as average at best.

Kansas City - It is painful even writing about this bunch. Brian Anderson had a horrid season last year after being signed to be the staff ace. His ERA was nearly a run higher than his career average. He made no excuses, however maybe based on his wife's health he may have had trouble keeping his head in the game. Zack Greinke is the future number one pitcher on this staff. He would have had a winning record last year with a little better runs support. Runelvys Hernandez missed all of 2004 due to injury. Jose Lima signed as a free-agent in the off-season could help but with a career ERA of exactly 5.00 after 199 games started (and another 130 in relief) it isn't likely. It has been five seasons since Lima had an ERA under 4.00. On the bright side, he is bringing his wife with him. Jimmy Gobble is walking batters almost as often as he strikes them out. That usually makes for high pitch counts and short careers.

Hat tip Chris of A Large Regular for pointing out Mrs. Lima.

Why are average Americans becoming more anti-union? Here's one answer.

In recent decades unions have become more synonymous with corruption than with helping the downtrodden worker. Here is one more example of why unions are in disfavor. Turns out union leadership wants Marines to protect their right to free-speech not to exercise their own.

H/T to Hundred Percenter

Mea culpa or maybe I was wrong

Last weekend I disagreed with my brother when he claimed that the killer of the judges family in Illinois was the most scared person in the country. My thought was that people who commit heinous offenses just don't think like the rest of us. Whereas most of us would be really scared of the consequences of our actions, someone who would kill two people in cold blood doesn't even contemplate the consequences. Well, maybe the guys who killed the judges family was a little scared of what he was facing when caught.

A man who shot himself to death during a traffic stop in Wisconsin claimed in a suicide note that he killed a federal judge's husband and mother, a source close to the investigation told The Associated Press Thursday.

Apparently the judge previously ruled against this guy in some case and he planned to kill her in retaliation. Rest of the article is here.

Dangerous Pets

I knew there was a reason I didn't like cats. Turns out cats are just plain violent and don't handle guns safely. Read more info here.

Sure it's grandstanding, but is it even Constitutional?

Obviously, having nothing else to do, Congress has decided to hold hearings on steroid use in Major League Baseball. Several things about this jump out to me.
First, unless prescribed by a doctor for a legitimate physical problem, any steroid use would have been illegal. Unless granted immunity the players in question would be idiots to confirm in a public forum that they used illegal drugs. Their lawyers surely will advice them to invoke the Fifth Ammendment and refuse to incriminate themselves.
Second, the name of the committee,the House Government Reform Committee, leaves me wondering how this issue is any of their business. Is cleaning up druggies in baseball part of "Government Reform?"
Third, I re-read my copy of the United States Constitution and no where in that great document does it even say that Congress has any subpoena powers. Congress issued a report titled "Congressional Investigations: Subpoenas and Contempt Power" in 2003. That report acknowledges no article of Constitution authorizes the use of subpoena power but go on to claim that the authority arises from past precedent. To me, that means the power is derived from the fact that their predecessors got away with it.

My real beef with the whole charade is the waste of money involved. We have a budget of over two trillion dollars and you don't get to a trillion without a lot of minor waste. No one ever accounts for the money wasted holding hearings and then printing results. How much money does our government waste accomplishing nothing? If asked about it, I'm certain they would say it is a relatively insignificant amount. True, if you're used to wasting millions then wasting hundreds of thousands will seem insignificant. However, regardless of the amount waste is waste.

Was Bush right?

Since the Iraqi elections on 30 January, we have been seeing a number of complimentary articles from sources previously very critical of the "Bush Doctrine." I was thinking of collecting them and posting something on the subject. Sort of an "I told you so" without using the grade school verbage. Well, saving me the trouble, Bill Rice of By Dawn's Early Light already started a list. The list is worth reviewing so years from now when the media claims it was all inevitable (as they attempted to say about the Soviet Union breaking up) you will know better.

Thanks to RWN for the link.

Where does democracy spread next?

In the past year, as elections were approaching (ours and Iraq's) those rooting for failure babbled words like "quagmire" and statements like "Iraq is Bush's Vietnam." Now with those elections behind us, things are looking different. Citizens of several other Middle-East countries are demanding their own free elections. Women are beginning to vote in some of the most misogynistic societies. Now comes the punch line, while our attention is on the nexus of the continents of Africa, Europe and Asia, some people in Vietnam are wanting to be the next Iraq. Based on this article from the Wall Street Journal, I have a feeling that change is coming to Vietnam. It may be another generation before countries like Iran, Vietnam, North Korea, Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc experience a dramatic change, but I don't think the people of those countries are prepared to wait that long.

Great headline

The headline of an article about John Bolton's nomination to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in the SFGATE read as follows:

Many Overseas Worried by Bush's U.N. Pick

Only one word necessary to sum up that headline.

GOOD!

Guess what, if the Syrians think he was a poor choice then he is definitely the right man for the job.

Dan, You still here? Get going already.

Tomorrow is finally Dan Rather's last night of boring people from the CBS anchor desk. I won't attempt to hide my antipathy for the man and his well-established liberal bias. However, I'm surprised how many in his own business are raining on his going away parade. The latest to say good riddance was his predecessor, Walter Cronkite. Ed from Captain's Quarters has a partial transcript (with commentary, of course) of Cronkite being interview by Wolf Blitzer on CNN.

Separately, Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) is hosting a fundraiser Wednesday at the Capitol Hill Club to celebrate the last broadcast of veteran "CBS Evening News" anchor Dan Rather, who has long vexed conservatives with a liberal bias.

The "C'est La Vie Comrade Rather" event - for the benefit of Tom Feeney for Congress - will be held from 5-7 p.m., during which attendees will watch Rather's final newscast at 6:30.

His last broadcast will probably be the only one in over a decade where he wins his time slot, as people (myself NOT included) tune in just to see if he goes out like Peter Finch's Oscar winning character in the movie Network. If Rather needs any encouragement, Finch is the only actor to receive an Oscar posthumously.

Some contests aren't worth winning.

Seems once a year there is an article about someone winning a drinking contest only to die of alcohol poisoning. Here is this year's winner. Now can we stop these "games" for a while?

I don't believe what I'm hearing

I realize announcers have to support (okay, shill for) teams whose games they broadcast. However, no amount of forced employer loyalty explains (or justifies) what I just heard on the radio. The nighttime sports talk guy on WTAM 1100 actually pretended to be excited about the Browns trading for Trent Dilfer. I have nothing against Dilfer, but lets be realistic. On his best day he has been called a serviceable starter while waiting for the next stud QB with the clipboard to learn the offense. I don't play fantasy football, but if you do I encourage you to take the Browns running back.

Apple didn't fall far from the tree in this messed up family!

Last week Milton Academy was in the news because of the sexual exploits of one of their students. Well, the story just gets worse.

State officials said yesterday that they have extended their investigation into the case of a 15-year-old sophomore girl who repeatedly engaged in oral-sex sessions with varsity ice hockey players at Milton Academy.

Click the above link to read more of this sorry story. Included in the article is the little tidbit that her dad is a teacher who left his last job because of allegations of misbehavior. Now he is teaching (and likely misbehaving) at another school. I hope that school has their insurance premiums in on time.

H/T to the fine folks at WIZBANG for noticing this story. Visit their site for links to previous articles.

Expand your vocabulary

Your word for today is "heteronormative." Why heteronormative, you ask? Well, Jada Pinkett-Smith spoke last week after being honored as Artist of the Year at Harvard University. Since then, The Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance is all upset and decried her speech as extremely heteronormative. What did she say that was so offensive?

``Women, you can have it all - a loving man, devoted husband, loving children, a fabulous career,'' she said. ``They say you gotta choose. Nah, nah, nah. We are a new generation of women. We got to set a new standard of rules around here. You can do whatever it is you want. All you have to do is want it.''

I hate to break it the BGLTSA, but somewhere between 90 and 95 percent of people are heterosexual which meets my definition of normal. You won't be happy in life if you are trying that hard to find something to complain about. She gave a campy speech full of cliches, who cares?

What really happened in the tragic shooting of Italian agent?

If you have read a newspaper or watched television news in the last few days you are aware of the shooting of an Italian agent who facilitated the release of Giuliana Sgrena, the journalist for the Italian Communist paper Il Manifesto who was being held hostage in Iraq. Initial reports led me to believe it was just one of those things that happens. For example, in a hurry, scared, etc the car skips a check-point and our military, which has learned the hard way to take those things seriously, starts shooting at the car to stop it. Since the initial news reports the story has taken off in many directions.
* The Italians may not have notified the U.S. led coalition of Sgrena's release since the U.S. has a policy against paying kidnappers.
* One report says 300 to 400 shots were fired at the car.
* Sgrena has claimed they didn't pass any check points and there was no warning.
* Pier Scolari, Sgrena's partner, put an even more sinister construction on the events, suggesting in a television interview that Sgrena was the victim of a deliberate ambush. 'Giuliana may have received information which led to the soldiers not wanting her to leave Iraq alive,' he claimed.
*Coalition forces say they believe standards rules of engagement for vehicles that refuse to stop were followed. However, an investigation into the shooting is being initiated.

There are only a couple things I can say with any certainty.
First off, if it was a deliberate ambush, as her idiot boyfriend alleges, she would be dead. 300 to 400 shots were not fired into the car. If we want to kill someone we could handle it much more efficiently than that.
Secondly, it was NOT a deliberate ambush. If our military wasted time hunting down journalists writing negative stories they wouldn't have any time left for hunting down and killing terrorists. Classic time management issue. Deal with the serious problem before the nuisance.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been a staunch ally in the War on Terrorism at considerable political risk and we need to ensure this doesn't damage our relationship with his government. We need to conduct an extremely thorough and transparent investigation. I'd go a step further and recommend we extend an invitation to the Italians to assign a liaison to the investigating officer with full access.

By my nature I'm skeptical of conspiracy theories. Based on that, I'm inclined to believe the initial reports that it was a communications problem as much as anything else.

Here are some links to related stories:
Guardian of UK (find all your conspiracy theories covered here)
Little Green Footballs
Captain's Quarters
Washington Times

UPDATE: Right Wing News has a link to a story from the Christian Science Monitor about the check points. Pretty interesting and educational reading.

How 'bout them Buckeye!?!

The Ohio State men's basketball team upset the undefeated and number one ranked team in the country yesterday. Ohio State would have cemented an at-large slot in the NCAA tournament if it wasn't for the fact that the school already self-imposed a ban on tournament play based on NCAA violations committed by former coach Jim O'Brien. Definitely something to build on and a real boost for recruiting.

Were James Garfield and William H. Harrison the best U.S. Presidents???

Okay, probably not. However, by one measurement one could make that argument. Neither James Garfield nor William H. Harrison ever abused their pardon power. According to this article about some recent pardons President George W. Bush issued they (Garfield and Harrison) are the only presidents never to pardon a guilty person. Personally, I'm not a fan of re-writing history.

Is this good or is it bad?

Kelly Holcomb agreed to terms with the Buffalo Bills on a four-year contract. Since last season ended the Browns released Jeff Garcia and now see Holcomb walk as a free-agent. As it stands now the team has two quarterbacks under contract, Luke McCown and Josh Harris. Neither McCown or Harris has established themselves. But don't worry, we might trade for Trent Dilfer. Nothing against Dilfer but if we give more than a fifth round pick for him we are getting ripped off.

Baseball America

I've always liked Basball America's emphasis on the minor leagues and prospects. Today they have a retrospective look at their annual Top 100 Prospect lists. Here are the Top 100 for every year from 1990 to 2005. Interesting to see which ones panned out.

Worth reading

You'd grow old waiting to see the lamestream media point out the hypocrisy the Democrats are exhibiting by having Senator Robert "KKK" Byrd as their standard bearer in the fight against allowing judicial nominees a simple up or down vote. However, there is one WV reporter, Don Surber of the Charleston Daily Mail who has started his own blog. He attacks Byrd just by letting people get to know him better. Give his site a look.

Another call to cut federal budget waste

George Will today attacks one of the most egregious examples of government waste, Public Broadcasting System (PBS). I'd say PBS outlived it's usefullness but that would be conceding that it ever had any. We don't get to trillion dollars budgets (actually 2.5 trillion) without a lot of unnecessary stuff. We need to identify it and badger our representatives about getting the federal government out of functions they have no business spending confiscated money on.

With the election behind him is John Kerry going back to the extreme left?

Political neophytes may have decided not to support John Kerry for President of the United States for any number of reasons. He definitely gave us enough choices. Most people just decided he'd be a lousy president. Personally, while I agreed with most reasons, my opinion has always been that his stances on issues are more in line with communism than with our capitalistic Democratic-Republic. In the years leading up to the election Kerry attempted to distance himself from the the more radical left and to pretend to be a centrist. However, with the election in his rearview mirror, he no longer is compelled to hide his support for radicals. Kerry has introduced a Senate resolution to honor W.E.B. Du Bois. Kerry's resolution emphasyzes Du Bois involvement in the founding of the NAACP. It conveniently, ignores the fact that the NAACP kicked him out for pushing for segregation of the races. More importantly, Kerry makes no mention that the man was an avowed communist who called communism "the only way of human life" and predicted that the free market was "doomed to self-destruction."

This next paragraph from the article in Human Events Online says all you need to know about Du Bois:

Du Bois fawned over any totalitarian regime that opposed America--Soviet Russia, Maoist China, Imperial Japan, and even, after a trip there in 1937, Nazi Germany. . . . . . . . While condemning anti-Semitism, Du Bois called it "a reasoned prejudice" in Hitler's Germany.

Beyond the fact that this character should not be honored, doesn't our senate have better things to do than honoring some old dead communist? The commies have already honored him "The Soviet Union awarded W.E.B. Du Bois the Lenin Peace Prize. Maoist China staged a national holiday in his honor in 1959."

Article found on Right Wings News.

AL CENTRAL OUTFIELDERS

I probably could have broke this down by RF, CF or LF, but I decided to group them together. Defensively, considering range of a centerfielder becomes more or less important depending on the corner outfielders. Ideally, you will have decent power from your corner outfielders, speed and good range from your CF and a strong throwing arm in right field. Obviously, very few teams are ideally constructed. Minnesota is an easy choice for first and KC has a lock on last. Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit are very closely bunched talent wise.

1. Minnesota - LF Shannon Stewart, CF Torii Hunter, RF Jacque Jones. The Twins have possibly the strongest outfield in baseball defensively and that doesn't change when Lew Ford is in the field instead of DH'ing. None of the group will challenge for the home run championship. However, they are a very balanced group as all four will rack up double digits in homers and stolen bases. Jason Kubel's knee injury does reduce their depth.

2. Chicago - LF Aaron Rowand, CF Scott Podsednik, RF Jermaine Dye. The White Sox traded Carlos Lee for Podsednik with the belief that Podsednik's style of play would be more in line with manager Ozzie Guillen's desire for aggressive base running. Unfortunately, no matter how fast he is, Podsednik can not steal first and his On-Base Percentage last year was .313 and you want your leadoff hitter getting on base at least 40% of the time. Rowand quietly had a very good season in his first opportunity as a regular. He was so far under the radar that The Sporting News hasn't even bothered to learn how to spell his name (Roward twice on page 87 of TSN's 2005 Scouting Notebook).

3. Cleveland - LF Casey Blake, CF Coco Crisp, RF Juan Gonzalez. This arrangement assumes Gonzalez has enough left to make the team out of spring training. Otherwise Blake will play RF, Crisp will shift to left and Grady Sizemore will take over in center. Ryan Ludwick is out of options and will probably start the season as the fourth outfielder. Gonzalez is now four years removed from his last strong season but reports are he is healthy and anxious to play. Odd coincidence, according to Similarity Scores from Baseball Reference, the three players most similar to Gonzalez are former Indians Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome.

4. Detroit - LF Rondell White, CF Alex Sanchez , RF Magglio Ordonez. Lot of uncertainty in the outfield for the Tigers. Ordonez was signed to a hefty contract with hopes that he can provide some serious pop in the lineup and protection for Pudge. Sanchez hit .322 last year and stole 19 bases. However, Sanchez' batting average is somewhat deceiving as he only drew 7 walks which resulted in an anemic OBP of .335. If he is going to leadoff he needs to be more selective at the plate. White who has been unable to play in 140 games in a season since 1997 followed form with a hip injury in August. Additionally, White played much better on the road than in spacious Comerica Park. Bobby Higginson is still on the roster but rumors are floating that he may be released if a trade can't be worked out.

5. Kansas City - LF Aaron Guiel, CF David Dejesus, RF Abraham Nunez. Recently the Royals signed Matt Diaz for added depth. None of this group have ever played a full season in the major leagues. Dejesus was a part of the Beltran deal last summer and has potential to be a very good center fielder. Easily the worst outfield in the major leagues.

At what age does one learn difference between right and wrong?

By a five to four decision, the U.S. Supreme Court decided murderous scum can not be executed by the state if they were under 18 years of age when they committed the crime in question. The test case was this one:

Christopher Simmons kidnapped a neighbor in Missouri, hog-tied her and threw her off a bridge. Prosecutors say he planned the burglary and killing of Shirley Crook in 1993 and bragged that he could get away with it because of his age.

This guy was 17 when he killed his neighbor and 28 now. If he doesn't rate the death penalty no one does. Kids much younger than Simmons understand the difference between right and wrong. They know murder is wrong. However, five of the idiots on the Supreme Court don't feel kids can figure that out until they're 18. I can accept someone (incorrectly) believing that the death penalty is wrong no matter what. I can not understand making a distinction between a 17 year old cold-blooded killer and an 18 year old cold-blooded killer.

AND ANOTHER THING:

This same Supreme Court has declared that innocent people can be murdered up until birth but the GUILTY can not be punished if they choose to commit their crime prior to reaching their 18th birthday. What morons.

Things that make you go "hmmmm???"

C.C. Sabathia is a big left-handed pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, a team I follow closely. This is his 5th year in the major leagues and I heard him say something on the radio this morning that really caught me by surprise. The Indians number one left-handed pitcher is right handed. He says he does everything right handed but after doing poorly in his first little league season his dad got him a glove for his right hand and made him switch to playing left handed. Who'd have thunk it?