Centerfield

Hey, an open thread before 4 PM!

If you like listening to Internet radio, you should probably sign the petition at SaveNetRadio. The Copyright Royalty Board recently raised the licensing fees for Internet radio to irrationally high levels. It's 4 times what satellite pays.

NFL Draft is this weekend, whatever will Oakland do?

That's really all I got.

Given Oakland's "offense," help almost anywhere would be useful. So they have the luxury of choosing the best offensive player in the draft.

Or they would, if Al Davis could bring himself to spend the money it would take -- which he probably can't. But that's the real decider: money, not skill needs.

Is there a problem viewing Stubborn Facts? When I tried to visit I was told "Forbidden from this server".

Can't view from Google either.

Just wondering.

Is there a problem viewing Stubborn Facts? When I tried to visit I was told "Forbidden from this server".

Can't view from Google either.

Just wondering.

I did eventually click on to SF. Sorry for the meaningless double post above. Server here is acting a bit strange.

SF is experiencing some server problems.

Someone with more technical knowledge and a bigger monkeywrench is working on it.

Max - they're trying to find a new hamster to put on the wheel. ;)

Just got back from a week in Mexico: a few days in Puebla and then a few in Mexico City. Among other things, we saw an utterly cool, huge, and three-story library founded by former Bishop and Viceroy Palafox. I climbed the pyramids in Teotihuacan.

Churchill sightings: my 3rd book of his WWII hexalogy, a statue in a high-rent district, and a bunch of schoolkids with his name on their shirts.

Why is airline travel so tiring when you just sit there? Sometimes I speculate that it's about diesel fumes, but that's just a guess.

You saw a Churchill statue? Odd. Near the end of his retirement, when some group proposed a statue of him, he said "I don't want a monument to my life to turn into a hunk of stone for the pigeons to poop on." Or words to that effect.

In accordance to his wishes, we have a big statue of him on my old college campus. ;-)

Why is airline travel so tiring when you just sit there? Sometimes I speculate that it's about diesel fumes, but that's just a guess.

Oxygen deprivation and dehydration. Cabin pressure in flight is kept at about 75% of sea-level pressure (about like 8000 ft altitude) and it's dry dry dry. Your body gets whacked around with the pressure and humidity changes. That plus the sheer hurry-up-and-wait stress of travel.

The weather here in NYC sucks. Cold and rainy again. It seemed a depressing week. Russia is sliding down hill. Iraq is festering. The debate was lame. I don't know, but is anyone worried that our way of life is in peril? I mean, does anyone sense a decline? Maybe it’s me. I feel worn out from hearing the Left/Right spin and the election is far away. Can anyone post something inspiring? Please, not Rosie being fired, something extra uplifting.

Some past Presidents seemed to have brought a new vigor to our society. I listened to Obama and felt like JFK was from the 19th century. Can't imagine TDS pounding Reagan. I sense we are just floundering around with no vision or message. There is such a lack of the exceptional that our expectations have fallen off the chart. Look at our astronauts. Look at our politicians. Look at our athletes (criminal records). Look at our media. Look at the Justice Department where many are from Regent Law where Law meets God. It’s about defending partial birth abortions and the Confederate flag. Even the Yankees can’t manage two in a row.

Hell, PBS has gone down the toilet. They can a documentary about moderate Muslims rejecting extremism because such a program would be "too inflammatory". Moyers and Maher v Hannity and Rush.

Sorry to depress…..Okay, its time for a beer.

women won't back down

Well, Max, if inspiration's what you need (and Iranian women are what you're into), you can always try Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and its sequel; Persepolis II. It's an autobiographical graphic novel about a young woman struggling for artistic freedom in Iran. It has quite a few laughs too, like the time when she bought a Michael Jackson CD on the black market. The Morals Police stopped and searched her. When they demanded to know why she was carrying a decadent American CD, she said
"That's not Michael Jackson...uh...that's Malcom X.*

*"Michael Jackson was still black in those days." she explains.

Now he plays in zombie movies and doesn't require makeup. :-)

Thanks Jean,
Sorry to sound a bit depressing. I found the determination of Iranian women inspiring in light of the general news which include things like this . They seem to have more balls than most Americans considering the Iranian courts have determined that citizens can murder other citizens for "unIslamic behavior".

Maybe I should just stop reading the news. I'll get a twitter account so Obama and Edwards can tell me how everything's gonna to be alright.

I thought the Jets did okay in the draft. Everyone else happy?

Any lawyers here? Is this true? Okay, who knows the dumbest State Law in the country?

I love the penalty for flirting in New York, the second time.

On another note, Biden just gave a good account of pre-Iraq invasion intelligence on Meet the Press. Unfortunately, his transformation to his current position is a bit strange, but he does make some good points. Biden said his change is based on the incredible incompetence shown by Bush. It is in the light of this bungling; he now says he would have changed his vote. He would have demanded the green light if he was president, but that is because he would have acted competently.

Biden disagrees with Reid. I give him some credit. In fact, he has the most sensible position on the Democratic side. If he can move from partition to the proto-federalism discussed below, we have a chance to either pressure Malaki, or create another balance that salvages the life and treasure sacrificed in Iraq. Lieberman, Biden and Clinton, still represented the best of what Democrats had to offer after 9/11. What is offered now is anyone’s guess, but I respect Biden for not completely capitualating to the Left side. He is the only one on the Left who can say, "I rather be right, than President".

His poll numbers reflect his honesty (and a loose mouth on occasions).

Speaking only for the Kansas entry, it is indeed illegal to shoot a rabbit from a motorboat--or from ANY motor vehicle. PERIOD. The only time it's legal to hunt ANYTHING from inside ANY motor vehicle at all (other than from a stationary boat when hunting waterfowl) is if you're in possession of a "handicapped hunter" certification, which allows you to shoot from a parked motor vehicle. The rabbit-motorboat reg is there to keep duck hunters from amusing themselves on slow days by shooting at anything moving on the shore.

The only exception whatsoever that allows ANY legal pursuit of game from a moving motor vehicle of any type in Kansas is the pursuit of coyotes. But you still have to stop and exit the vehicle to (legally) shoot them.

That particular law makes sense.

"A recently passed anticrime law requires criminals to give their victims 24 hours notice, either orally or in writing, and to explain the nature of the crime to be committed." LOL

This would apply to terrorists I suppose.

Most of the other laws are laughable. I bet all of us would be wearing horse blinders. Construction workers would have a problem working in NYC. I believe New Mexico has a law banning exposed female body hair under the arms and legs. I have observed birds copulating on the cornice of NYU LAW. Now who gets a ticket for that? (It was probaly intended for intentional breeding of Horses and Dogs)

Hey, Oakland gets a QB and WR. Will that help?

You can see the basics of "illegal pursuit" in Kansas hunting here, but it's just what I said.

I like the Dumb Law site, but they're really stretching with a lot of them, and some are just not true. For example, in Kansas "noodling" (the bare-handed catching of flathead catfish) was banned to keep innocent property owners from getting sued when "noodlers" were injured or drowned in private waters--which covers most of the riverfront land in the state.

Grabbing a flathead in any depth of water can be dangerous. Noodlers wade the rivers and duck down and reach into holes and snags along the banks, trying to find and grab the fish. Yes, they really do this. And now you can even get a permit to do it legally.

If you think noodling sounds silly, I'd agree, but I'd also point out that flatheads can reach near six feet long and weigh 100 lbs plus. That's a LOT of catfish nuggets.

Fun bit of bad grammar on the Kansas hunting site:

Furbearers and coyotes may be taken at night, but use of artificial light, including optics that project or amplify light, is prohibited. However, hand-held, battery-powered flashlights, hat lamps, or hand-held lanterns may be used to take trapped furbearers, trapped coyotes, or furbearers treed by dogs with .22 rimfire rifles and handguns.

When the dogs start carrying .22 rifles and handguns, they might as well go ahead and shoot the critter themselves rather than just treeing it and waiting for a hunter or trapper to show up... :-)

Star Wars

Interesting take. I thought we went to Iraq and Afghanistan to remove Saddam and AQ which Iran considered the Dark Side. Funny, flip flopping knows no borders.

Perhaps this is a better look at the Muslim Dark Side. Iran has now banned Western grooming in favor of the unibrow. Rumor has it, tourists will be subjected to the new fashion police. LOL

Well, there are dumb laws and outrageous laws. You decide.

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man."

Mark Twain

I just read this and I know some here love Twain. How true........

I'm tired of listening to the "responsible" people. The "responsible" people lied us into a war with Iraw or idly sat by and watched. By "responsible" I mean those people who would never question that the U.S. government is a presumptively benevolent in the world.

Let's hear from the "irresponsible" people for a change. Those people hold the United States to its own standards. 'Hey, we're not as bad as North Korea or Al-Queda' doesn't cut it with those people. Because they don't believe that the U.S government is presumptively valid, they actually pay attention to little things like international law.

Now the responsible people say that we should not look backward but only forward. But if we don't look backward we will never learn from our mistakes. The responsible people would never dream of saying that the U.S. troops are dying for an unlawful and unjust war because that might hurt feelings. The truth hurts, but if we keep lying it will hurt worse.

Irresponsible talk. Our leaders are idiots, and the media are shills. The war was waged to spread free trade globalization. This econonic development strategy, they promised, would end terrorism in addition to solving all other problems. It didn't take account of history at all. It didn't take account that its own previous support of Saddam's dictatorship would impede its efforts at democratization. Or how unlikely it would be that the Iragis would suddenly do voluntarily what they had previously had to be coerced to do.

Responsible people tell us that if this doesn't work nothing will. Before it was this or communism. That was it: two choices, only two. Now it is only one. Globalization is it, and there is nothing else. Free markets, spectacle and the work-buy-die syndrome is the most that human life could ever offer.

Irresponsible talk. Quality over quantity. Peace. Overcoming our addiction to crude oil. Working less, living more. Having less, being more. It is so irresonsible that it has only a vague outline. Paul Goodman, Wendell Berry, Gary Snyder--the irresponsible people that can't be pigeon-holed so easily between free market and communist. The irresponsible ones that nobody talks about.
Peace.