Posted 2:23 PM by Floyd

Just got done watching the Florida Marlins eliminate the San Francisco Giants. I am an A's fan, but I like to see the Giants do well. That said, I have never seen a team more richly deserve to lose a series. If you follow baseball you've heard about Jose Cruz Jr's two boots in right field -- one an easy fly ball. You've seen that the Giants committed seven errors in four games. You know that the Giants left a division-record-breaking 18 men on base in game 3.

A lot of horrible actions by the Giants didn't make it into the box scores:

• Watching the 9th inning Giants batters hack at everything in sight I asked myself, "Okay, what's the previous record for fewest pitches seen per batter in a divisional playoff?" From the box score: 32 batters for the Giants saw 126 pitches, which is 3.94 pitches per batter. 34 Marlins batters saw 155 pitches, 4.56 per batter.


• In the eighth inning, "Pudge" Rodriguez ran to home plate as Yorbit Torrealba caught a two-bounce throw from Cruz. They collided, Torrealba didn't have a good grip on the ball, and it popped out about fifteen feet on the first base side of home. No one backed up the play, so by the time Torrealba found the ball another run -- the winning run-- had scored.


• And just why was Torrealba playing in place of the Giants' star defensive catcher, Benito Santiago? I know the guy's 38 years old, but Jesus, it's a must-win game. Cowboy up, as the Red Sox like to say.


• Speaking of other people who mystified me by their presence: In the 9th inning Giants coach Felipe Alou sent Pedro Feliz to bat for Yorvit Torrealba. Feliz has a .278 on-base percentage. Do you think saber is a kind of sword?

Posted 4:03 PM by Floyd

The San Jose Mercury News printed these letters from Arianna Huffington supporters. I would just like to say that you should vote Yes on the recall and Yes on Arianna.

Shame on Arianna Huffington for dropping out of the run for governor. She has disappointed many like myself who were looking forward to having a choice separate from status quo politics run by big bucks and corporate interests.

I understand that her decision to drop out was based on a desire to safeguard the Democratic vote for California. But she has allowed the tyranny of tradition, led by men with egos bigger than our national debt, to again have its way.

I only hope she will have the courage to rise up in future elections and hold her ground. We need articulate and well-educated women running government.

Tempest Lynn Weis
Seaside

Quite a tyrannical tradition that joke candidates get less than 1% of the vote. Bonus points to the letter-writer for being named after a video game.

By the way, did I mention that you should vote Yes on the recall, and Yes on Peter Camejo?

The average male doesn't handle the household budget or decision-making, so why would you want a male leading California? The rooster may crow, but the hen delivers the goods. Since the roosters have been crowing in Sacramento, California has gone to hell in a hand basket.

California government is not broke. It is grossly mismanaged by men with their personal agendas, but it is not broke.

Unfortunately, since Arianna Huffington has dropped out of the race, California will be no better off after the recall than it is today.

Noreen Martin
Hollister

Average males don't handle budgets or make decisions? Roosters in Sacramento? Hens delivering goods? Those men and their personal agendas?

I think when your analogy slips its clutch out and veers off the road and over a cliff and into the ocean and kills a whole bunch of innocent fish, you should tear up your letter and get back to work on sending your personal ad to Henpecked Weekly.

Oh, and be sure to vote No on the Recall. That's always been my position!

Posted 3:53 PM by Floyd

Time for a Friday Five:

1. What vehicle do you drive?

A red Mazda Miata.

2. How long have you had it?

Since June of 1991(!).

3. What is the coolest feature on your vehicle?

Taking the top down on a warm evening drive.

4. What is the most annoying thing about your vehicle?

The stereo barely works. I should replace it, but I keep planning to get a new car.

5. If money were no object, what vehicle would you be driving right now?

A high-end Lexus, BMW, or Mercedes-Benz.

Posted 4:56 PM by Floyd

One more self-indulgent baseball post: Only Lerrence Tucking Fong could generate two outs on a strikeout. For those who did not watch last night's game: Fat umpire Randy Marsh stayed up past his bedtime, so by the ninth inning his normally miniscule strike zone gained about six inches on top. Long was ahead on the count, got a ball called as a strike, and on 3-2 got another ball called as a strike. But the irrepressible Long had already moved to toss his bat aside and head toward first. Meanwhile Scott Hatteberg, who had of course run on the full count, had stolen second. The catcher had to throw around Long, who was in front of the plate, and Marsh properly called Hatteberg out on interference.

Long's reward for this display of focus and favor-currying with the umpire was to be intentionally walked in the 12th inning. Lerrence Tucking Fong wintentionally ucking falked? So you can pitch to Ramon Hernandez? What more could you do to piss off the gods of baseball, pre-order a cryo-crypt for Barry Bonds?

Posted 4:43 PM by Floyd

Aaron Haspel claims that baseball is the dullest game in the world. You couldn't prove that statement by the Oakland-Boston playoff series. But then "series" is a misnomer; it was more like one of the classic $39.95 pay-per-view boxing matches where Mike Tyson would KO his opponent in a minute and 45 seconds. Yesterday at this time I was idly looking forward to the game, which was more than two hours from starting. Now the Red Sox are gasping on the mat, needing to win the next three games -- and their Game 3 starter already has a postseason loss under his belt!

Read Colby Cosh's article on last night's game. Colby was rooting for the Sox, but I love him anyway. I have a mild quibble with the opening paragraph:

All I can say is, if you don't start following the Red Sox-A's American League semifinal after tonight's game, you are an insane idiot. Hey, you were already under suspicion: what were you doing that was more important than seeing Pedro Martinez square off against Tim Hudson? The answer had better be "getting married" or "burying my twin brother" or somethin'.

That's "burying my identical twin brother." A deceased twin of the fraternal variety will surely keep for 4 1/2 hours.

Posted 6:14 PM by Floyd

What's the most liberal and civilized Arab country in the Middle East? Why that would be plucky little Jordan! Jordan has a measure of democracy! Jordan has a young, pro-Western king! Jordan has a queen who is a babe, and she doesn't wear a veil or even a headscarf!

On September 8, Jordan's parliament refused to prohibit "honor killings", because that would "violate religious traditions."

(From Little Green Footballs, where Charles Johnson relentlessly exposes that part of the world which is stuck in the previous millenium.)

Posted 4:17 PM by Floyd

R.B. of InfiniteMonkeys witnessed an accident, and helped carry the driver to safety. Read his gripping account.

Posted 12:34 PM by Floyd

Damien Penny links to a canada.com article about an obsequious job-hunter whose cover letter was called "the most disturbing ever."

"If my mother's funeral was the day of a key deposition, I would do the eulogy via teleconference after the deposition. If my wedding was the date of a key trial, the wedding would be postponed," writes Toll, a third-year student at Tulane University in New Orleans.

"If the wife to be did not like it, I would inform her that work comes before EVERYTHING ELSE and that if she does not like this, she is free to find a competing husband."

On the fourth page, Toll goes on to say he is not "above" anything and is willing to make his own copies.

"If a piece of evidence was accidentally dropped into the garbage, I would have no problem going to the local dump and spending days covered knee-deep in the worst foul-smelling sludge imaginable to search for the evidence."

Sounds like an Onion editorial.

Posted 1:42 PM by Floyd

The Mercury News' anti-recall editorial that I mocked two posts ago has this telling sentence:

The candidates who are clear in their positions, Peter Camejo, Arianna Huffington, and Tom McClintock, reflect only a fraction of the electorate.

McClintock is polling at 18% in a three-way race, which is the level of support Jesse Ventura drew weeks before he won the gubernatorial election in Minnesota. Camejo polls at 5% on a good day. McClintock represents the views of half the United States; Camejo is a lunatic proponent of washed-up socialist ideas. It's telling that the Mercury News lumps the two in the same category.

(In the most recent debate Camejo was screaming about how illegal immigrants were "part of our family". This "family" stuff gives me the creeps. I am not the governor's dependent. I am a citizen.)

Posted 9:46 PM by Floyd

A Usenet posting by the provocative anarchist James Donald:

Only the enemies of America, the enemies of Americans, and the
enemies of freedom want order in Afghanistan.

There is order in Pakistan, and Pakistan is where the
terrorists are coming from to attack US allies and US troops in
Afghanistan.

There is order in Indonesia. Recently they arrested the
Javanese equivalent of Bin Laden, a man responsible for the
murder of a couple of hundred Australians, a few hundred non
Javanese Indonesians, and the attempted murder of the
Indonesian head of state. They gave him a very orderly trial
and very orderly due process, and sentenced him to four years
in prison.

Order like that we do not need. We do not want order. We
want the capability to kill our enemies. Order is frequently
an obstacle to this, an obstacle that we have no choice but to
smash.

Posted 8:28 PM by Floyd

Robert Heinlein wrote an essay in which he listed means by which democracy could be improved. Heinlein threw any idea he could think of on the wall to see what would stick: Restricting the vote to women, charging money for votes, requiring voters to solve a quadratic equation. Here's my suggestion: Ask a prospective voter if he or she was influenced to vote by a newspaper editorial. If the answer is "yes," send that person home and place them on the waiting list for "Donated organs, brains."

Today's San Jose Mercury News opinion page masthead editorial opposes the recall. Remember as you read on that there are a whole committee of people paid real money to compose this drivel.

The recall is wrongheaded even though Gray Davis has been a mediocre governor. The indictment against him is familiar: budget mismanagement, perpetual fundraising, a personality that not only distances him from the voters but also limits his effectiveness with the Legislature.

The indictment fails to mention that Davis has championed major increases in education funding, protection for the environment, and a hard line against crime -- all of which are priorities Californians tell pollsters they endorse.

"Davis has championed major increases in education funding." Yes, blockheads, that's why we have a budget deficit. What do these people think their readers have for brains? Oatmeal? "I am voting to recall Davis because the state has a huge deficit." "But Davis championed major increases in education funding." "He greatly increased spending? Well I guess I was wrong about that budget deficit. Thanks for letting me know!"

I'm also glad to see that the Merc editorial board doesn't have to deal with rude concepts like quantities. "All that money was spent fighting crime, which is one of your priorities, so move along." If I hire a servant to do my grocery shopping, and tell him beer is a priority, do I lose my right to complain when he spends my life's savings on a Sierra Nevada bottling facility?

But even if all of the charges against Davis are true, they don't add up to a case for dumping him mid-term. After all, the federal budget is in trouble, and Republicans are aggressive fundraisers as well.

I look forward to next year's Mercury News endorsement of George W. Bush for president. Is it too much to ask that the Merc editorial writers, who exude high-mindedness and deliberation, to refrain from tu quoque?

While California's Constitution permits a recall any time enough petitions get signed, it ought to be reserved for graver offenses.

Already California is hobbled by partisan division. Where once the opposing parties sometimes looked to find common ground, they now seize every opportunity for sabotage. A recall will usher in more scorched-earth politics, including more recalls undertaken in retaliation.

Californians have had the ability to recall their governor for nearly a century. Every single governor has been the target of a recall petition. Doesn't that suggest that we will not have a recall every year from here on out?

And isn't California a strongly Democratic state? If the recall is a partisan endeavor, how can it be polling 60-65%?

This is my favorite anti-recall argument:

Voting ``no'' on the recall affirms the importance of predictable elections.

Boy, talk about parochial! Are there any free countries that don't fix the date of their elections, and can oust their leaders at any time? Only every other democracy in the entire world.

Posted 7:30 PM by Floyd

Here's a New York Times article by Moneyball author Michael Lewis on the California recall. Lewis chats with a Davis-despiser who lives next door to him, talks with the people who brought about the recall (and were then discarded by Schwartzenegger et al), and appears to catch Davis in a scummy Joe Kennedy trick: Registering a candidate named Issa to draw votes away from Darrell Issa should he run.

(Link via Matt Welch.)