Bush:

I'd make it a goal to make sure that local folks got to make the decision as to whether or not they said creationism has been a part of our history and whether or not people ought to be exposed to different theories as to how the world was formed.

Awful. Should kids also be exposed to different theories of gravity?

I wonder. Are kids in India and China wasting their time creationism? If anyone has any doubts about why American kids have crappy science scores, direct these questions to our president.

I dunno. Maybe it's time to give Timlin a shot....

It turns out the Iraqis are having a bit of trouble with their constitution. As with so many things (reconstruction, insurgents, democracy, oil, etc. etc. etc.), I think the administration has vastly underestimated the difficulty of this task. True to character, they neglected the difficulties. Had they been paying attention, they may have noticed another country that had its own trouble coming to grip with the issue of federalism. After seven years of failure, they tried again. That didn't really get the job done either--sixty one years later the country nearly destroyed itself in an astonishingly brutal civil war.

The population of the United States was 31 million in 1860, and about 620,000 people died. Iraq has about 26 million people (hey, surely we can trust the CIA about Iraq, right?). I don't know that anyone can really say how many civilians have did, but this site says 25,000. Will Iraq dissolve into civil war? I bet it does, unfortunately. And I bet the issue will be federalism. Just like here.

On my way to the train in the morning I walk past Wholefoods, which always has a security guard out front. As I walked past him today a homeless guy happened to approach him at the same time. The following conversation ensued:

Drug-addled homeless guy: "Hey, so'oze goona win Cy Young?"
Security guard: "hmm"
Homeless guy: "Huwza Carpenter fu da Cardinals?"

Then I walked out of range.

Obviously, the security guard should have pointed out that it's only early August, and there's a ton of baseball yet to play. As a Cardinals fan, I was happy to see Chris Carpenter getting some recognition, even if I was surprised that the homeless guy is so up on National League pitching. But Carpenter's having a terrific year.

If the season ended now, would he win the Cy Young? I think it's either him or Clemens. Carpenter has more wins, but Clemens has a better ERA, and it's not Clemens' fault that he's had crappy run support. Clemens hasn't had a truly bad start all year. I'd still give it to Carpenter, though, because of the innings. Clemens has been great, but he's gone eight innings only twice. Carpenter has five complete games (six nine inning starts, but one of his starts went ten), four shutouts, and has pitched at least eight innings nine times.

It's still close, as Smoltz, Dontrelle Willis, Roy Oswalt, and Pedro Martinez are still in the hunt. Livan Hernandez has been, as always, a horse (also nine starts of at least eight innings), but I just don't think he's going to get too many more wins. I see Washington fading.

In any case, I'm happy our homeless population is following baseball.

I always figured that Rafael Palmiero would make it to the Hall of Fame as the ultimate monument to being Pretty Good for a Very Long Time. His career numbers will add up impressively, but has he ever been all that good? He played in a grand total of four All Star Games. He never won an MVP, and only three times was he in the top ten. Forget about being the best player in the league, was he ever the best player on his own team? Ever? Was he ever the best player at his own position?

And now he's been suspended for steroids. If I were a voter, it would be a tough call. Can you vote against a guy with 500 homers and 3000 hits? I dunno. But if I was ever going to vote against someone with those stats, Palmiero would be the guy.

It sounds like the Iraqi government is making noises about having us leave, as soon as next year. Great! However, if Iraq then dissolves into civil war, have we not failed?

For that matter, if the new Iraqi constitution, written by Iraqis, implements the worst aspects of sharia law, have we really succeeded?

Last December I visited Niger, where my sister and brother in law were Peace Corps Volunteers. Yes, the same Niger that is starving.

The people of Niger are unquestionably the most generous I have ever met. In my sister's village, Sabon Gida, THEY brought US more food than we could eat, every night. This is no hyperbole, we stuffed ourselves and could eat no more, and they kept bringing us food. (Maradi, where the BBC story was bylined, is about 120 miles east of Sabon Gida.) I am now faced with the immensely terrible thought that the people who brought us food are now starving themselves.

Niger is not the sort of country where the people starve while the president buys new fighter planes and has a villa in the south of France. Right before we got there they had a peaceful and fair election. The President seems to be a honest man who has improved things in the country. The only sin of the Nigeriens is to be born in a land with too many people, not enough rain, and no real exports except uranium and onions--and I bet there aren't even any onions this year.

If you've been thinking about this at all, I urge you to make a donation.

My sister and my brother in law recommend CARE (https://donate.care.org/05/170420990000/) and Catholic Relief Services (http://www.crs.org/make_a_gift/individual/index.cfm). I encountered people from both organizations and neither one is spending money on upkeep of their buildings or lavish salaries of their staff.

I recently saw Wor of the Worlds. On the recommendation of someone who shall remain nameless (but is Tom Lorek's mother's son), who said it was "more craptacular than Independence Day". Now I thought Independence Day was pretty craptacular, so that's a pretty high endorsement.

Revenge of the Sith was better.

War of the Worlds is so silly. It's just dumb. Independence Day (against which it must be compared) had a plot, albeit a plot with holes one could, uh, drive a spaceship through. This didn't even have a plot. It was a dumb movie with annoying unconvincing characters. Dumb dumb dumb.

First Martha Stewart. Now Lil' Kim.

The lesson: Don't Lie To The Feds.

Ugh.

229 years ago a bunch of rich white men got together and signed their own death warrants (i.e. the Declaration of Independence). Would the today's leading politicians stand up and risk life and limb for this country?

We know that Bush wouldn't. And we know that Cheney wouldn't.

Thank God we had leaders back then who were brave....

I recently saw the new Star Wars.

In the interest of seeing the glass as 1/16 full, I present the following two positive points about it:


a) It was undeniably better than the last two movies (nos. 1 and 2 in the sequence)

and

b) None of us ever have to see another Star Wars movie in theaters again. It's over.

Remember when the reason we went to war in Iraq was because they were hiding weapons of mass destruction? Or remember when the reason we went to war in Iraq was because of the connections between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden? Or remember when we were at war in Iraq to bring democracy to the Middle East?

NOW, it turns out, we're at war in Iraq because that's where all the terrorists are, and of course we have to fight the terrorists. Well yes, there are terrorists there. And yes, those terrorists are there to kill Americans. Is it not blindingly obvious that the terrorists are in Iraq ONLY because we are there first? I mean, can anyone seriously doubt that we are the cause of the terrorists in Iraq right now?

Thirty years ago, we cut and we ran out of Vietnam. Thank God we did. It was a war that could not be won. However, we were in Vietnam for 15 years before that. I hope we don't wait thirteen more years to get out of Iraq.....

I hate to say it, but I wonder whether Kevin Millar was on steroids last year. Consider his numbers.

His slugging percentage sure has dropped, hasn't it?

I'm sometimes a fan of Christopher Hitchens (especially his thoughts on Henry Kissinger), but here undoubtedly gets it right here.

Airport security is absolutely stupid. For all of the reasons he mentions, and many others:

-Either it is justified or it is not justified to make everyone take off their shoes in before going through the x-ray machine. But the government has yet to come up with a consistent policy.

-What's more dangerous, nail clippers or a big hardsided laptop? For that matter, what's more dangerous, a small pen knife or a big hardsided laptop? Obviously, it's the laptop. A laptop would be a pretty effective club, I bet. Of course, they can't ban laptops, because that would be too inconvenient.

We have a "security system" that ends up filtering out only those things that aren't too inconvenient, which is to say, not real security.


Hitchens doesn't mention that all of this is also useless. If a terrorist took over a plane these days, everyone would rush the cockpit, because everyone knows that they're already dead anyway. This is a classic instance of fighting the last war.

No surprise why the Sox are mediocre this season.

Millar: .237 (hellooo, John Olerud!)
Mueller: .264
Bellhorn: .244
Payton: .226

I guess I can't insult Bellhorn after his homer in Game 7 last year, but still. .244 is .244. I don't care how many walks you have.

By the way, who's Jay Payton and how is he getting so many at bats????

When this is the bottom half of your lineup, you're not going to score a lot of runs....

It appears that Cheney was offended by the Amnesty report on Guantanamo Bay. To me, the most important quote is: "For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don't take them seriously."

That's just it. He, and the administration he runs, just doesn't take this seriously. I'm not sure why. I have no doubt that some of the former prisoners are liars. And some are undoubtedly terrorists. But the administration just can't seem to admit the possibility that there has been abuse, and that abuse is torture. But how many stories do we need?

I just can't believe that every single one of these former prisoners is lying. I wish I believed it, for America's sake. But there are too many stories to disbelieve them. I don't share the administration's blind faith that we would never torture. It's not impossible. Do they ever ask themselves "What if we're wrong?"? I don't know.

Is President Bush actually Woodrow Wilson? For some reason I've been reading a bunch of books about the time between 1910 and 1920, and I think the comparison is apt.

Both are utterly convinced that God is on their side, believers that America is somehow unique in the world and that it is America's role to lead the world into a new tomorrow.

Wilson's proudest creation, the League of Nations, failed. I suppose the analogy with Bush would be his war in Iraq. I'm betting it's going to fail too. It's sure not going well so far. Another helicopter shot down today.... Ugh.

It seems to me that the Senate could really end this whole filibuster debate quickly. Especially for W's judges who don't generate ideological debate. There are a couple from Michigan who've been nominated to the 6th Circuit and, from what I read, they're only opposed because NONE of Clinton's nominees from Michigan to the 6th Circuit were ever brought to a vote. (Some of them languishing for years.)

So why not nominate one of each? One of W's, and have him nominate one of Clinton's. Done.

By the way, the Republicans aren't really going to be as small minded as to eliminate filibusters, are they? Are they so daft as to think they're going to always have the President?

Been travelling a lot for work. I was at a tradeshow in Pittsburgh (it's what I do and yes, it's boring) a couple of weeks ago. In a big convention hall, one room was called, apparently without irony:

The Spirit of Pittsburgh Ballroom