Thursday, June 29, 2006

A Bullet Dodged, It Seems

The water that spent much of yesterday working its way up my street receded almost back to the river bank overnight. The most recent flood alert (see last item) suggests that the worst appears to be over, at least for my part of the Schuylkill River. Whew.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Oh. My. God.

Stop....

Get....out....

Must....get.....out....

Like today hasn't been difficult enough. Forget about your house flooding. Some images are worse.

Flood Update

Good news -- the pace of the encroaching water seems to be lessening. Not out of the woods yet, but things looking better than they did three hours ago. So far, we have it better than others.

Man the Barricades!

I was hoping to post more now, but I have become otherwise engaged watching the Schuylkill River creep ever closer to my front door. Have you heard the expression "God willing and the creeks don't rise"? That's my hope today.

Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal Goal

I like soccer the way George Bush likes fiscal conservatism -- a few weeks of it every four years is plenty. Perhaps the soccer fans out there can answer what for me are two key questions raised by the World Cup action:

  1. Why, after every goal, does the scorer race toward the corner of the field and make all the other players chase him? What's up with that?
  2. Why does what is supposed to be the premier sporting event in the world use officials who appear to have been trained by FEMA? How many times have you seen this the past couple of weeks: Player A gets entangled with Player B, who then collapses like he has just been shot by a sniper, and the referee jogs over and whips out the yellow or red card on Player A? What's that all about?

Oh, Puh-leeze

Nicole Kidman must have hired Sinatra's canon lawyer. Andrew Sullivan says it well here -- what nonsense (and in today's catty moment, notice how different Nicole looked then. Hmmm.)

Keep these theological gymnastics in mind the next time you hear the Pope or some bishop bloviating about the sanctity of marriage in an effort to prevent two loving, faithful, and prayerful people of the same sex from marrying.

Friday, June 23, 2006

The Wonderful Wizard

If loving Ozzie Guillen is wrong, I don't want to be right.

No reasonable person, of course, can condone his use of the word "fag" to describe sportswriter Jay Mariotti, although being required to attend a "sensitivity training" class is a punishment commensurate with a far more serious crime. Still, the guy is interesting, in that what-will-he-say-or-do-next-train-wreck kind of way. Baseball could use more of his kind of passion, even if it is occasionally misguided.

Memo to the hapless Bud Selig: Sending Ozzie Guillen to sensitivity training is like sending Mr. Ed to ballet school. Not gonna happen (though it would probably be fun to watch).

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Stop the Madness

I couldn't agree more. What a cruel and tawdry spectacle, indeed, spending time and money to send someone to prison instead of ensuring the mental health treatment she so desperately needs. Does anyone really think that Andrea Yates would ever leave the psychiatric facility into which she should be placed? Anyone who says that an acquittal by reason of insanity, followed by court-supervised placement in a secure mental health facility for years on end, means that Andrea Yates has gotten away with murder or otherwise has not been held accountable, simply has no idea what they are talking about.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Cost-of-Living Increase

This Philadelphia Inquirer article raises an important issue that many of us will deal with as individuals and all of us have to deal with as a society. The gist: More medical care is not necessarily better medical care and does not necessarily lead to better results. It is, however, a whole lot more expensive.

Key quote: "The Dartmouth researchers argue that the differences in the amount of care that patients receive depend more on the supply of health-care providers -- particularly how many specialists and hospital beds are available -- than on a patient's needs or medical evidence."

Somebody has to pay for all of those TV, radio, and print ads the health systems produce.

But, Seriously....

Time for a game all of us can play: Here's the photo. You supply the caption.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Is That a Brisket in Your Pocket, Or...?

Who says our borders are not protected? I'm guessing the next travelers to declare rye bread and mustard got busted, too.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Curmudgeon Alert!!

The Weenie-ization of America continues. This high school's 41 -- 41!!! -- valedictorians can put their diplomas next to the trophies they received simply for showing up to their baseball or soccer games. This school is not doing these kids any favors, starting with a grading system that gives so many of them straight As.

When everyone is excellent, no one is.

Friday, June 16, 2006

You Get What You Pay For?

Memo to Jeff Skilling: I would have lost your case for half that amount.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

The Land of the Free?

Another smart post by Andrew Sullivan, this time on the shame of Guantanamo. Several hundred prisoners, no charges, and no trials. No way to prove that you are not who the Bush Administration says you are or that you have not done what the Bush Administration says you have.

The choice is clear: Either the United States is going to be different -- is going to mean something -- or it isn't. It shouldn't be a hard decision.

Monday, June 12, 2006

That'll Show Him

This pretty much typifies Bud Selig's handling of the issue of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. He gets tough with a guy who has less of a chance of pitching in the majors than I do. Wow.

Tastes Like Chicken

At least Al Gore is safe.

Priorities, People, Priorities

Murders increased by 14 percent in Philadelphia in 2005, according to the FBI, the largest one-year jump since 1991. According to this Philadelphia Inquirer article today, everyday life is so unsafe in some parts of the city that volunteers have to escort children walking to school in order to keep them out of danger.

Meanwhile, in other news, this group of prominent citizens is working on bringing the 2016 Olympics to Philadelphia. I don't get it. I really don't. There are just so many issues facing Philadelphia residents, from the pervasive level of gun violence to the poor state of the schools to the ineffective -- and at times corrupt -- administration of City services. Yet these folks wants to spend a bazillion dollars on the Olympics? I could be wrong, but I would guess that very few to none of the Olympics boosters live in neighborhoods where children need adult escorts to stay out of harm's way walking to school. Please, let's keep our focus on what really matters.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Driving One to Drink

Those of us lucky enough to live in Pennsylvania have learned to adapt to the -- how to put this delicately -- inefficiencies of the state-controlled system of wine and liquor sales. I had pretty much become immune to the limited selection, 25 percent tax, and employees who care as much about being helpful as President Bush does about the Fourth Amendment. Until yesterday, however, I had no idea how good I had it.

So I walk into the state store closest to where I live in Center City Philadelphia. I buy some vodka and several bottles of wine (I was, uh, shopping for a friend). The employee at the register scans the bottles, places them in two large brown bags, and then looks at me when I don't immediately pick them up.

"Could you please put them into plastic bags so that I can carry them," I ask, referring to the types of bags used at supermarkets, food stores, etc.

"I don't have any," she said.

"Oh. Maybe there are some over there, " I suggest, helpfully pointing to the register a few feet away.

"We don't have any in the whole store," she replied. "We ran out. We might get some later today."

When I expressed some surprise to the two managers standing in the nearby office and asked how it was possible that a store could run out of plastic bags, given that they cost almost nothing, and come in boxes of about a billion, one of them replied: "We just work here. You'll have to talk to (Governor) Rendell." I will spare you the details, but let's just say things deteriorated from there, although in retrospect maybe I shouldn't have mentioned FEMA. It wasn't fair to the FEMA people.

How incompetent are these people? Well, in addition to not noticing when they were down to their last thousand or so bags, once they ran out it appears not to have occurred to anyone to go to one of the other state stores in Center City (one is no more than a five-minute walk from the store I was in) and get a supply of bags. I guess common sense is not part of their job description.

Fly Me to the Moon

You sure don't have to be a big-shot economist to know that airline travel is full of pointless requirements, but I still could not agree more with what Freakonomics czar Steven Levitt calls "airplane nonsense." While Levitt usefully points out that there has not been "an unlikely water landing" in a very long time, what I like best about the "water landing" speech is that they give it to you know matter where you are going. If you are on a flight from, say, Pittsburgh to Dallas and are being warned about a possible water landing, you have put yourself in the hands of one seriously incompetent pilot.

Another favorite is the time they take before each flight -- using either one of the flight attendants or a video that obviously is several years old because both the airline employees and customers are smiling -- to tell the passengers how to fasten and unfasten the seat belt ("Insert the metal end into the buckle..."). Given that it is extremely unlikely that anyone who does not know how to use a seatbelt is traveling alone or without the assistance of someone from the airline, what exactly is the point of this exercise?

The "plastic knives only" rule also is completely pointless, but not for the reason Levitt mentions. After 9/11, airline passengers are not going to allow someone wielding a knife or any other similar weapon (such as the broken wine bottle Levitt posits) to take over a plane. A group of passengers will simply beat that person into submission, if not death. It is that simple.

Happy summer flying!!

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Praying for the End of Time

Andrew Sullivan pretty much captures my feelings about the horrific Ann Coulter, though I would go a step farther: She is both vile and empty. Why anyone pays the least bit of attention to her -- much less buys her books -- is beyond me. If she would just put a doughnut in her mouth she would solve both of her problems.

You Got Anything Else in That Bag?

The news about Jason Grimsley is indeed shocking. Not the news about the raid on his house, the affidavit that discusses details of his admitted use of steriods, amphetamines, and human growth hormones, or the implications for the many other major league players who also were users of these products.

No, the jaw-dropping part of this story is that Jason Grimsley was still on a major league roster. I thought only left-handers got to have long careers with this level of spectacular mediocrity. And this is with the use of performance-enhancing drugs, although that term now has to be reconsidered in light of Grimsley's career numbers.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Drive for Show, Putt For Dough

Michelle Wie should chase every dream she has, including playing in the men's U.S. Open, Masters, and anywhere else she can. But unless she stops putting with all the touch of Sweeney Todd cutting hair, she will be just another player -- even on the woman's tour.

Keeping Them Honest

Yet another example of NCAA stupidity and hypocrisy. Schools and coaches cash in big-time, stuffing their pockets while giving lectures about character and "student-athletes," while the players who generate all that income are bound by these kind of ridiculous rules. What a disgrace.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Not That There's Anything Wrong With That

Holy Julie Newmar!!!

If you find this sort of thing interesting, you are too old to be reading comic books. And if you know who Julie Newmar is, you are just too old.

Is This a Great Country, or What?

I can't even pretend to understand the condition this guy has, so I will accept that it is a difficult thing to deal with. It is an interesting legal claim, to say the least, but given that we have a prison system loaded with seriously mentally ill people getting little to no treatment -- not to mention those not in prison who cannot obtain basic medical and dental care from state Medicaid programs -- it seems hard to justify spending public money this way.