Baseball Picks

OK, sports fans, here are my baseball predictions for this year: AL WEST AL CENTRAL AL EAST A’s Tigers Yankees Angels White Sox Orioles Mariners Twins Red Sox Rangers Indians Blue Jays Royals Devil Rays   Wild Card: Angels Pennant: A’s beat Yankees MVP: Eric Chavez Cy Young: Randy Johnson Rookie of the Year: Nick … Continue reading “Baseball Picks”

OK, sports fans, here are my baseball predictions for this year:

AL WEST AL CENTRAL AL EAST
A’s Tigers Yankees
Angels White Sox Orioles
Mariners Twins Red Sox
Rangers Indians Blue Jays
Royals Devil Rays

 
Wild Card: Angels
Pennant: A’s beat Yankees
MVP: Eric Chavez
Cy Young: Randy Johnson
Rookie of the Year: Nick Swisher

NL WEST
 NL CENTRAL NL EAST
Dodgers Cardinals Braves
Giants Brewers Mets
Padres Cubs Marlins
Rockies Astros Nationals
D-Backs Pirates Phillies
Reds

 
Wild Card: Mets
Pennant: Braves beat Mets
MVP: Pujols
Cy Young: Schmidt
 
World Series: A’s

Last years picks here.

Matt Welch’s picks here.

Give him the chair

Sploid says: A man convicted in the nation’s first felony case against illegal spamming was sentenced to nine years in prison Friday for bombarding Internet users with millions of junk e-mails. He got off too easy.

Sploid says:

A man convicted in the nation’s first felony case against illegal spamming was sentenced to nine years in prison Friday for bombarding Internet users with millions of junk e-mails.

He got off too easy.

Up to their old tricks

The exclusive gambling franchise enjoyed by our native American neighbors depends on the perception that they’ve been hard done by the white man, and with so many groups claiming victim status these days it becomes harder and harder to prove. One thing that threatens this notion is the archaeological fact that there were other people … Continue reading “Up to their old tricks”

The exclusive gambling franchise enjoyed by our native American neighbors depends on the perception that they’ve been hard done by the white man, and with so many groups claiming victim status these days it becomes harder and harder to prove. One thing that threatens this notion is the archaeological fact that there were other people in North America before the native American migration.

So there’s been a constant effort on the part of these people to suppress archaeological knowleged for several years now. Said effort reached a fever pitch in the infamous Kennewick Man case involving remains found in southern Washington State. Recent efforts to suppress science take the form of a bill declaring all old remains “native American” whether they are or not. See Progressive Reaction: Just relax, this won’t hurt a bit and Panda’s Thumb – Call your Senator for more.

This can’t be allowed to happen, so do call your Senator.

Reality TV hits Iraq

A TV reality show featuring captured terrorists is a big hit in Iraq: BAGHDAD — Iraq’s hottest new television program is a reality show. But the players are not there by choice. And they don’t win big bucks, a new spouse or a dream job. Instead, all the characters on “Terrorism in the Hands of … Continue reading “Reality TV hits Iraq”

A TV reality show featuring captured terrorists is a big hit in Iraq:

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s hottest new television program is a reality show. But the players are not there by choice. And they don’t win big bucks, a new spouse or a dream job.

Instead, all the characters on “Terrorism in the Hands of Justice” are captured suspected insurgents. And for more than a month, they have been riveting viewers with tales of how they killed, kidnapped, raped or beheaded other Iraqis, usually for a few hundred dollars per victim.

Seated before an Iraqi flag, the dejected and cowed prisoners answer questions from an off-camera inquisitor who mocks their behavior. Some sport bruised faces and black eyes. Far from appearing to be confident heroes battling U.S. occupation, they come across as gangsters.

“I watch the show every night, and I wait for it patiently, because it is very revealing,” said Abdul Kareem Abdulla, 42, a Baghdad shop owner. “For the first time, we saw those who claim to be jihadists as simple $50 murderers who would do everything in the name of Islam. Our religion is too lofty, noble and humane to have such thugs and killers. I wish they would hang them now, and in the same place where they did their crimes. They should never be given any mercy.”

It’s funny what a little truth can do.

Arabs Lift Their Voices

My favorite member of the liberal elite, Tom Friedman, summarizes the UN’s latest Arab Human Development Report today: Meanwhile, the Arab peoples were told by their own leaders and state-owned intellectuals that democracy had to come later – after the nationalist struggle against colonialism or the liberation of Palestine or the creation of an Islamic … Continue reading “Arabs Lift Their Voices”

My favorite member of the liberal elite, Tom Friedman, summarizes the UN’s latest Arab Human Development Report today:

Meanwhile, the Arab peoples were told by their own leaders and state-owned intellectuals that democracy had to come later – after the nationalist struggle against colonialism or the liberation of Palestine or the creation of an Islamic state.

Well, the combination of 9/11, the Bush policies and the flattening of the world, whereby everyone can increasingly see how everyone else is living, changed all that – as evidenced this week with the publication of the third Arab Human Development Report, written by a courageous group of Arab social scientists under the auspices of the United Nations Development Program. This is one of the finest U.N. products under Kofi Annan.

The first report, in 2002, was about the poor state of Arab human development. The second, in 2003, was about the poor state of Arab education and science. The new one focuses on “the acute deficit of freedom and good governance” in the Arab world. It underscores how much Arab peoples crave, and need, freedom and good government – as much any other people. With the great news that Iraqis are finally forming a new government, it couldn’t appear at a better time.

You can download your own PDF copy for only $10 by clicking here.

Don’t worry about peak oil

From time to time, our hippie friends worry that we’re on the brink of running out of oil and plunging into the Dark Ages. I don’t worry about this at all because technology will save our bacon as it has so many times in the past. Someday we’ll have the Hydrogen Economy, with clean-burning and … Continue reading “Don’t worry about peak oil”

From time to time, our hippie friends worry that we’re on the brink of running out of oil and plunging into the Dark Ages. I don’t worry about this at all because technology will save our bacon as it has so many times in the past. Someday we’ll have the Hydrogen Economy, with clean-burning and cheap fuel. But before we get there, we’ll manufacture more crude oil to replace the stuff we’re pumping now. We’ll do this with a process known as thermal de-polymerization or TDP:

TDP does the same thing the earth does when it turns organic matter into oil, but a lot faster, using standard refinery components and techniques. The technology is not quite competitive – barrel for barrel or ton for ton – with existing energy sources, but if all the secondary costs and benefits (transportation, waste disposal, pollution and disease control, compatibility with existing energy infrastructure, vulnerability to terrorism, etc.) were factored in, it would look more competitive than other energy alternatives

So don’t worry, be happy.

Roger L. Simon: Peretz Speaks

Here’s a quick link from Roger Simon quoting Marty Peretz: If George W. Bush were to discover a cure for cancer, his critics would denounce him for having done it unilaterally, without adequate consultation, with a crude disregard for the sensibilities of others. This strikes me as about right, although some of Dubya’s critics have … Continue reading “Roger L. Simon: Peretz Speaks”

Here’s a quick link from Roger Simon quoting Marty Peretz:

If George W. Bush were to discover a cure for cancer, his critics would denounce him for having done it unilaterally, without adequate consultation, with a crude disregard for the sensibilities of others.

This strikes me as about right, although some of Dubya’s critics have begun to admit he was basically right about that whole democracy thing, as in “yes, Virginia, even brown people want to be free.”