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As someone who roots for the now-less-perennial cellar-dwellers of the American League Central, it was a very sad thing to find out that George "Sparky" Anderson, manager of the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers baseball clubs, died 4 November 2010 at the age of 76. While many fans of both teams remember him as a manager that won them championships (the lovable losers got close this last decade, but 1984 is the last time they won a baseball championship), others remember him as the manager that refused to bring in a replacement team for the 1995 strike-shortened season, taking a leave of absence from the team. Still others have been touched by his charity work for CATCH. Sparky Anderson knew his game, and managed it well. Had he any talent that stuck around for long enough to build a team, instead of being sucked up by free agency and the bigger markets, I think he would have had more than just the one championship with Detroit.
Out in the world today, an anniversary of the storming of the American Embassy in Iran marked by chants and demonstrations, as they also blocked the website of the previous president of the country.
The Conservative government of Canada may be having its own Kanye West moment, as the Sisters in Spirit project that maintains a database of missing First Nations women is finding itself starved of funding because it wants to keep its own name and logo as the government attempts to create something like their efforts and place it under the RCMP.
Domestically, let the battles begin anew - over taxes in the lame duck session, then over health care in the new Congress, with Mr. Boehner pretty well guaranteeing that dirty tricks will be out in force. His advice for the new Speaker, just in case it isn't him, offers things that most sane people would want from their government - no earmarks for anyone, a requirement to post bills before voting on them, stopping omnibus bills and making sure the legislation process is conducted in the open as much as possible. Any speaker who could enforce just those principles on their House would earn props for running a more open book than most.
MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann was suspended from his job after he made personal contributions to the Democratic Party in violation of his contact. This would never happen at Fox News, despite far more obvious electioneering, because Fox does not require its persons to refrain from donating or shilling for political causes. As Ms. Maddow points out above, what does that say about the ethical standards of the various organizations, and their orientation toward news versus poltics? Furthermore, who was promoting the clearly bogus numbers that the President's trip to India was going to cost $200 million USD per day?
After a white police officeer was accused of killing an unarmed black man, the judge in charge of sentencing expressed his concern at the outpouring of emotion advocating for the maximum possible sentence - and then, gave the minimum possible sentence, rejecting the extra time because he's sure the jury didn't understand what they were doing, since they returned a verdict of involuntary manslaughter with an addendum that required the defendant to have had intent to use the weapon, and gave credit for time served. The area is, to say the least, Not Impressed with the logic or the sentence. Thing is, it's not illogical to say, "Yes, we believe he intended to use his stun gun, but he still drew his weapon with intent to use. If he was stupid enough to not check before firing, then he deserves to serve as much time as he can." One can expect accusations and insinuations of institutional racism to follow this, in protests and elsewhere.
In technology, Space Shuttle Discovery is gearing up for its final mission into space, after which time the United States will piggyback on other countries for manned missions where needed while developing their next-generation manned mission capsule.
Staying off-planet, the Deep Impact probe performed a very close flyby of Comet Hartley 2, gathering data and pictures that will help scientists get a more complete picture on what a comet is actually composed of.
Google's continued investments and experiments in other areas of technology may seem like head-scratchers, but they have had a lot more hits than misses.
Welcome to opinions, and we have a few that are political, and a few more that are cultural. Roger Ebert pens a column in celebration of the good things for the United States that Hugh Hefner has done, acknowledging the arguments against Playboy's naked ladies while pointing out that Playboy and Hefner are so much more than just naked ladies. When people make comment that perhaps Mr. Ebert needs to NSFW mark his column, Mr. Ebert pens another column about how NSFW reflects the American attitude about naked people, acknowledging that some people do face real danger from their employer if they come across a picture of a naked lady, but indicating that really, people should realize that an article about Hugh Hefner will likely contain naked people.
Heritage thinks the best way to cut deficits is by stopping any more spending, then forcinga government wages down, and then cutting out programs such as farm subsidies and technology programs. If I were reading sipmlistically and viciously, I'd just ask "Why does Heritage hate jobs so much?", but that's reading it entirely wrong. Instead, I'll post a letter to the Editor of the Baltimore Sun that makes the point I want to make - and it's a phrase that Republicans and conservatives do throw about, but on different ideas. "There is no such thing as a free lunch" - despite the fact that the American people want it, and will elect people who promise it to them.
Mr. Schaeffer suggests the Tea Party and Social Issues Republicans being elected indicates that a significant part of the electorate is on the Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins schedule for the End Times, and so they want to accelerate us through to the Rapture and Tribulations so that Jesus will come again and prove them all right. Slacktivist says there's more to it than just that, and brings in the point that the Tea Partiers are really a combination of the John Birch Society and the Tribulation Force, but they both agree that the Jenkins/LaHaye point of view is gaining ground everywhere, and that's spilling over into politics.
Mr. Trzupek goes for the simiplest attempt at disproving this idea by saying that because places normally considered racist elected black and brown candidates, clearly they can't actually be racist. So those hysterical Leftists are just making stuff up and being rude to candidates who choose not to answer their questions. Oh, and not to mention, those liberals are really just a tiny part of the country, so we can safely ridicule them and ignore anything they have to say.
Mr. Shirley says there's no comparison between Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, because Ronald Reagan was a beloved figure who only did good for the country in making a recovery and defeating an Evil Empire, then rode off into the sunset, while Barack Obama has done no such thing and has already written two autobiographies, so he's a selfish narcissist who should never defile the name of the great Saint Reagan in such a way.
Speaking of perceived defilements, Mr. Toomey dismisses the legitimate concerns about the George W. Bush library suggesting that Southern Methodist University might be seen as endorsing things like the Iraq War or the response to the 11 September attacks. For Mr,. Toomey, of course, this is just the whining of liberals who should be estatic that Saddam Hussein is dead and that George W. Bush protected their freedoms, and besides, nobody's protested Jimmy Carter, who let so many countries fall into communism and Islamism, clearly evil things. False equivalencies and avoided arguments everywhere.
Last out of opinions, if the Republicans really do want to have Congressional investigations into climate change and whether it's science or pseudoscience, let 'em. Put it on the record, on the TV machine, and on the Intarwebs. Then, let the people decide who's science and who's grandstanding without a shred of evidence to back them up.
Last for tonight, an excellent piece about the need for atheism and religion to both always be falsifiable and testable, and that if religiion wants to get atheists around to their side, they need to start hanging together hypotheses that can be tested, provide good predictions, and explain why atheism, up to that point, seems like a good hypothesis. It's cordial, non-hostile, and worth reading for both sides of the debate.
Out in the world today, an anniversary of the storming of the American Embassy in Iran marked by chants and demonstrations, as they also blocked the website of the previous president of the country.
The Conservative government of Canada may be having its own Kanye West moment, as the Sisters in Spirit project that maintains a database of missing First Nations women is finding itself starved of funding because it wants to keep its own name and logo as the government attempts to create something like their efforts and place it under the RCMP.
Domestically, let the battles begin anew - over taxes in the lame duck session, then over health care in the new Congress, with Mr. Boehner pretty well guaranteeing that dirty tricks will be out in force. His advice for the new Speaker, just in case it isn't him, offers things that most sane people would want from their government - no earmarks for anyone, a requirement to post bills before voting on them, stopping omnibus bills and making sure the legislation process is conducted in the open as much as possible. Any speaker who could enforce just those principles on their House would earn props for running a more open book than most.
MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann was suspended from his job after he made personal contributions to the Democratic Party in violation of his contact. This would never happen at Fox News, despite far more obvious electioneering, because Fox does not require its persons to refrain from donating or shilling for political causes. As Ms. Maddow points out above, what does that say about the ethical standards of the various organizations, and their orientation toward news versus poltics? Furthermore, who was promoting the clearly bogus numbers that the President's trip to India was going to cost $200 million USD per day?
After a white police officeer was accused of killing an unarmed black man, the judge in charge of sentencing expressed his concern at the outpouring of emotion advocating for the maximum possible sentence - and then, gave the minimum possible sentence, rejecting the extra time because he's sure the jury didn't understand what they were doing, since they returned a verdict of involuntary manslaughter with an addendum that required the defendant to have had intent to use the weapon, and gave credit for time served. The area is, to say the least, Not Impressed with the logic or the sentence. Thing is, it's not illogical to say, "Yes, we believe he intended to use his stun gun, but he still drew his weapon with intent to use. If he was stupid enough to not check before firing, then he deserves to serve as much time as he can." One can expect accusations and insinuations of institutional racism to follow this, in protests and elsewhere.
In technology, Space Shuttle Discovery is gearing up for its final mission into space, after which time the United States will piggyback on other countries for manned missions where needed while developing their next-generation manned mission capsule.
Staying off-planet, the Deep Impact probe performed a very close flyby of Comet Hartley 2, gathering data and pictures that will help scientists get a more complete picture on what a comet is actually composed of.
Google's continued investments and experiments in other areas of technology may seem like head-scratchers, but they have had a lot more hits than misses.
Welcome to opinions, and we have a few that are political, and a few more that are cultural. Roger Ebert pens a column in celebration of the good things for the United States that Hugh Hefner has done, acknowledging the arguments against Playboy's naked ladies while pointing out that Playboy and Hefner are so much more than just naked ladies. When people make comment that perhaps Mr. Ebert needs to NSFW mark his column, Mr. Ebert pens another column about how NSFW reflects the American attitude about naked people, acknowledging that some people do face real danger from their employer if they come across a picture of a naked lady, but indicating that really, people should realize that an article about Hugh Hefner will likely contain naked people.
Heritage thinks the best way to cut deficits is by stopping any more spending, then forcinga government wages down, and then cutting out programs such as farm subsidies and technology programs. If I were reading sipmlistically and viciously, I'd just ask "Why does Heritage hate jobs so much?", but that's reading it entirely wrong. Instead, I'll post a letter to the Editor of the Baltimore Sun that makes the point I want to make - and it's a phrase that Republicans and conservatives do throw about, but on different ideas. "There is no such thing as a free lunch" - despite the fact that the American people want it, and will elect people who promise it to them.
Mr. Schaeffer suggests the Tea Party and Social Issues Republicans being elected indicates that a significant part of the electorate is on the Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins schedule for the End Times, and so they want to accelerate us through to the Rapture and Tribulations so that Jesus will come again and prove them all right. Slacktivist says there's more to it than just that, and brings in the point that the Tea Partiers are really a combination of the John Birch Society and the Tribulation Force, but they both agree that the Jenkins/LaHaye point of view is gaining ground everywhere, and that's spilling over into politics.
Mr. Trzupek goes for the simiplest attempt at disproving this idea by saying that because places normally considered racist elected black and brown candidates, clearly they can't actually be racist. So those hysterical Leftists are just making stuff up and being rude to candidates who choose not to answer their questions. Oh, and not to mention, those liberals are really just a tiny part of the country, so we can safely ridicule them and ignore anything they have to say.
Mr. Shirley says there's no comparison between Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, because Ronald Reagan was a beloved figure who only did good for the country in making a recovery and defeating an Evil Empire, then rode off into the sunset, while Barack Obama has done no such thing and has already written two autobiographies, so he's a selfish narcissist who should never defile the name of the great Saint Reagan in such a way.
Speaking of perceived defilements, Mr. Toomey dismisses the legitimate concerns about the George W. Bush library suggesting that Southern Methodist University might be seen as endorsing things like the Iraq War or the response to the 11 September attacks. For Mr,. Toomey, of course, this is just the whining of liberals who should be estatic that Saddam Hussein is dead and that George W. Bush protected their freedoms, and besides, nobody's protested Jimmy Carter, who let so many countries fall into communism and Islamism, clearly evil things. False equivalencies and avoided arguments everywhere.
Last out of opinions, if the Republicans really do want to have Congressional investigations into climate change and whether it's science or pseudoscience, let 'em. Put it on the record, on the TV machine, and on the Intarwebs. Then, let the people decide who's science and who's grandstanding without a shred of evidence to back them up.
Last for tonight, an excellent piece about the need for atheism and religion to both always be falsifiable and testable, and that if religiion wants to get atheists around to their side, they need to start hanging together hypotheses that can be tested, provide good predictions, and explain why atheism, up to that point, seems like a good hypothesis. It's cordial, non-hostile, and worth reading for both sides of the debate.
