Apologies

Sorry about the lack of posts the last few days. I've been very busy with work and getting ready to head out to Chicago for the 4th of July. I promise to have some good stuff posted by the weekend.

What Does Politics Have to do with Owning a Baseball Team?

I loathe George Soras, but this is really petty of Republican Congressman Tom Davis (via Roll Call):

Three months into their inaugural season, the Washington Nationals are in first place. Attendance is strong, hopes are high, and the team is reportedly turning a tidy profit.

But to some Capitol Hill Republicans there is a dark cloud on the Nats' horizon: the potential that their newly adopted home team could be purchased by billionaire financier George Soros.

Earlier this month, Soros joined an ownership bid being led by entrepreneur Jonathan Ledecky. Their group is one of more than a half-dozen angling to take over the Nats, who are currently owned by Major League Baseball.

In addition to being a well-known currency speculator and philanthropist, Soros is also known in political circles for having pumped more than $20 million in the last cycle into groups seeking to unseat President Bush and elect Democrats.

While the Soros-Ledecky group is not seen as the frontrunner to win the bidding for the Nationals, who should be awarded to their new owner at the end of the 2005 season, the very prospect that Soros could have a stake in the team is enough to irritate Congressional Republicans.

"I think Major League Baseball understands the stakes," said Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis (R), the Northern Virginia lawmaker who recently convened high-profile steroid hearings. "I don't think they want to get involved in a political fight."

Davis, whose panel also oversees District of Columbia issues, said that if a Soros sale went through, "I don't think it's the Nats that get hurt. I think it's Major League Baseball that gets hurt. They enjoy all sorts of exemptions" from anti-trust laws.

Red Dragon Rising?

Bill Gertz in today's Washington Times paints a scary picture about a potential U.S.-China war a few years down the road. Here's the lead-in:

China is building its military forces faster than U.S. intelligence and military analysts expected, prompting fears that Beijing will attack Taiwan in the next two years, according to Pentagon officials.

U.S. defense and intelligence officials say all the signs point in one troubling direction: Beijing then will be forced to go to war with the United States, which has vowed to defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack.

While the thought of a China-U.S. war is certainly a frightening one and could easily develop into World War III, I am skeptical that there is going to be a U.S.-China military showdown over Taiwan in the near future. China would be fools to provoke a war with the U.S. China's military may be becoming more sophisticated and powerful, but it only spent about $70 billion on defense expenditures in 2004 whereas the U.S. spent nearly $400 billion on the military in the Fiscal Year 2004. In addition, unlike the recent Iraq War, much of the world outside of Russia and rogue regimes like North Korea would rally against a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The consequences of foreign nations rallying against China would be two-fold. One, China would have to deal with not only the U.S. military, but also Britain's, Japan's, South Korea's, Germany's and so forth. Two, China would likely go into a recession. Over fifty percent of its exports go to the following five countries: U.S. (22.8%), Hong Kong (16.2%), Japan (12.4%), South Korea (4.4%) and Germany (4%). None of these countries would continue do anywhere near that kind of trade with China if it invaded Taiwan. Not to mention, the possible countries that might support a Chinese invasion of Taiwan like Russia or North Korea have no where near the economic strength needed to make up for the loss of U.S., Japanese and Hong Kong trade. China will continue to take non-military measures to try to gain control over Taiwan, but unless the leaders of China have a death wish, they will not take the bold step of invading Taiwan.

Tom Cruise, Ph.D.

Tom Cruise was at it again a few days ago with more of his bizarre ramblings on the evils of psychiatry . During an interview on the Today Show, Cruise and Matt Lauer had the following exchange:

Cruise: Matt, you have to understand this. Here we are today, where I talk out against drugs and psychiatric abuses of electric shocking people, okay, against their will, of drugging children with them not knowing the effects of these drugs. Do you know what Aderol is? Do you know Ritalin? Do you know now that Ritalin is a street drug? Do you understand that?

Lauer: The difference is -

Cruise: No, no, Matt.

Lauer: This wasn't against her will, though.

Cruise: Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt -

Lauer: But this wasn't against her will.

Cruise: Matt, I'm asking you a question.

Lauer: I understand there's abuse of all of these things.

Cruise: No, you see. Here's the problem. You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do.

Lauer: Aren't there examples, and might not Brooke Shields be an example, of someone who benefited from one of those drugs?

Cruise: All it does is mask the problem, Matt. And if you understand the history of it, it masks the problem. That's what it does. That's all it does. You're not getting to the reason why. There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance.

Lauer: So, postpartum depression to you is kind of a little psychological gobbledygook -

Cruise: No. I did not say that.

Lauer: I'm just asking what you, what would you call it?

Cruise: No. No. Abso— Matt, now you're talking about two different things.

Lauer: But that's what she went on the antidepressants for.

Cruise: But what happens with antidepressants, all it does is mask the problem. There's ways, [with] vitamins and through exercise and various things... I'm not saying that that isn't real. That's not what I'm saying. That's an alteration of what I'm saying. I'm saying that drugs aren't the answer, these drugs are very dangerous. They're mind-altering, antipsychotic drugs. And there are ways of doing it without that so that we don't end up in a brave new world. The thing that I'm saying about Brooke is that there's misinformation, okay. And she doesn't understand the history of psychiatry. She doesn't understand in the same way that you don't understand it, Matt.

And here's some more from Dr. Cruise and Lauer:

Cruise: Matt. Matt, Matt, you don't even — you're glib. You don't even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt, okay? That's what I've done. Then you go and you say where's the medical test? Where's the blood test that says how much Ritalin you're supposed to get?

Lauer: It's very impressive to listen to you. Because clearly, you've done the homework. And you know the subject.

Cruise: And you should. And you should do that also. Because just knowing people who are on Ritalin isn't enough. You should be a little bit more responsible in knowing really

I'm speechless. I felt bad for Matt Lauer. How do you respond to such incoherence? I do find it funny that Cruise tries to come off as this authority on research in psychology and the history of psychology when his only research probably consisted of reading L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (which by the way can be yours for the low, low price of $16.95 at the Scientology Bookstore). While Cruise's recent behavior continues to remind me of an old Simpsons episode where Troy McClure has a relationship with Selma in part, to cover his sexual fetish with fishes, Cruise did have one valid point in his rambling. Drugs like Prozac or Xanax or Lithium with no psychological counseling to compliment the drug treatment do just cover up a person's mental issues. Most research on medications treating mental illnesses show that people who just take the medication alone will have their symptoms reappear after they stop taking the medication. However, much of that same research also shows that in treating mental illness, taking medication and engaging in counseling sessions produces the most the beneficial and long lasting effects (well after counseling and drug treatment ceases) on person's well-being. So to say that taking medication to treat mental illnesses is taking our society to a Brave New World scenario is a bit misguided.

Feeling the Heat

It's becoming clear that the Iranian government is desperately trying to repress the fallout from the democratization efforts of its neighbor, Iraq, as they confiscated half a million wallet-size cards and posters on Tuesday that endorsed Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani for president and also contained the words, "democracy" and "freedom". The Iranian government agents informed the managing director of the Nazar Printing House that printed the cards and posters that if the cards and posters did not contain the words "democracy" and "freedom", the cards and posters would not have been confiscated. Despite the Iranian government's best efforts, the managing director is not giving up on this democracy idea, as he told reporters, "We have this much democracy [holding two fingers an inch apart]. And this is how much we desire [holding his arms wide apart]." If more people feel like this managing director of the Nazar Printing House does, Iran could be have another revolution on its hands in the near future.

Funnier than I First Realized

A few days ago, I wrote about a mock impeachment hearing that a few House Democrats held over the weekend. This mock hearing was funnier than I even imagined. The Daily Show last night showed clips of this hearing that for some reason was carried on C-SPAN (ed. note: you need to fast forward to 3/4 of the way through the video clip to see the discussion on the mock hearing). During this "hearing", someone accidentally turned off the lights when former Ambassador Joe Wilson was "testifying". At a different point in the hearing, a woman begins to breast feed her baby while Rep. Maxine Waters is speechifying in front of her. As I told one of my friends last night, I'm beginning to think some of these Democrats should just start wearing some baggy pants, put some make-up on and start honking a horn because I do not see how anyone can take some of these Congressmen seriously.

It's About Time

Senator Durbin has finally issued an apology for his offensive remarks comparing the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to the treatment people received from the Nazis, Soviet gulags and Pol Pot. While Senator Durbin has come to his senses, some newspapers have not. Namely, the Minneapolis Star Tribune. In an editorial today, the Star Tribune says the following:

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., set off a firestorm last week when he compared U.S. treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo to practices employed by Nazis, Soviets, Pol Pot and their ilk. His remarks were condemned by the White House, the Pentagon, the Christian Coalition, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Newt Gingrich (who called for his censure by the Senate) and by the entire right side of the talk radio/television/blog world. The heat got so bad that, late in the week, Durbin apologized if his remarks had been "misunderstood." They weren't, and Durbin should not have apologized...

...Durbin was spot on in his assessment of Guantanamo. That's why he was so roundly attacked. He told the truth. And his message is of vital importance; the United States is better than this.

Being that I've never lived in Minneapolis, I'm not too familiar with the Minneapolis Star Tribune. I do believe it is the major newspaper in Minneapolis and not the newsprint version of a Lyndon LaRouche pamphlet, but I might want to reconsider that after reading editorials like today's.

Hat tip: Power Line

Democrats Continue to Embarrass Themselves

With the Democrats in the minority in both chambers of Congress and no sign of regaining either chamber anytime soon, 12 Democrats including Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) played a game that I don't think I've played since elementary school: make-believe. They held a mock impeachment inquiry over the Iraq war with Conyers playing the role of the Committee Chairman. This mock inquiry had four witnesses testify including one witness, Ray McGovern, a former intelligence analyst, who said "that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration 'neocons' so 'the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world.'" I guess when Democrats want to embarrass themselves, they want to go all out. But hey the way the Democrats are behaving these days, there should be plenty of more opportunities for make-believe time.

Hat tip: Drudge Report

Classless

Earlier in the week, Arnold Schwarzenegger returned to his alma mater, Santa Monica College, to give a commencement speech, where he was met with "catcalls, howls and piercing whistles from the crowd." Schwarzenegger is a polarizing political figure to a certain extent in California, but to try to drown out his speech with this non-sense was completely disrespectful and classless. I wonder if these idiots realized that this was a commencement speech, not a political speech at some rally. You want to boo Schwarzenegger and call him a loser during a speech outside the governor's mansion, that's fine. It's partly what makes politics fun. But commencement is about the students, not politics. These protesters got so caught up in scoring cheap political points for their causes that they could care less if it ruined the students' commencement.

Quote of the Day

"Yes, Adolf Hilter, one of the worst mass murders in all of history has become the go to metaphor for anyone whom you have a minor dissagreement with."

-Jon Stewart

Definition of Irony

Two PETA employees have been arrested on animal cruelty charges.

Hat tip: Drudge Report

Overblown Political Rhetoric of the Week

In the second installment of this very prestigious award, this week's winner is Senate Minority Whip and one of my former Senate representatives, Dick Durbin, who said the following during a floor speech on Tuesday:

Let me read to you what one FBI agent saw. And I quote from his report:

On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18–24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detaineee was shaking with cold.

On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.

If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime—Pol Pot or others—that had no concern for human beings.

Yeah making some guy wet himself or making him sweat or making him shiver is on the same level as gassing millions of people or arresting and working to death millions of dissidents or genocide. Is some of the treatment of detainees inappropriate? Absolutely. I think making some guy wet himself or defecate himself is not an acceptable way to treat someone, even if that person wishes to harm America. The officers responsible for that kind of treatment should be disciplined. However, I continue to wonder what the hell the politicians are thinking when they make asinine metaphors like this. Frankly, these kinds of metaphors are offensive to the millions of people who were victimized by the Nazis, the Soviets in the gulags, Pol Pot and any other nasty and brutish regimes politicans wish to compare to the detainees' treatment at Guantanamo Bay. Despite the offensiveness of Durbin's remarks, Durbin has refused to apologize.

So what prompted Durbin's rant Guantanamo Bay? The President's Energy bill. Seems logical. It's good to see that Democratic leaders like Durbin and Howard Dean are doing all they can to make sure the Republicans have a larger majority in Congress the next election.

A Bombshell

The Drudge Report is reporting that in the new book, The Truth about Hillary by Edward Klein, will allege that former President Bill Clinton raped his wife Hillary Clinton during a vacation in Bermuda in 1979, leading to the conception of their only child, Chelsea. While I loathe Bill Clinton, I am extremely skeptical of these allegations. Based on the what was said on the Drudge Report, it sounds like the author Klein, is relying on a single, unnamed source. When an author is relying on one unnamed source to make a very serious allegation like this, I am very leery to believe those allegations. The first thing that actually came to my mind when I read this on the Drudge Report was the recent book by Kitty Kelley on the Bush family, which alleged that current President George W. Bush did cocaine at Camp David when his father was President. These allegations made by Klein reek of tabloid journalism. Now I could be wrong about this. I have not had the opportunity to read Klein's book and he might have some very convincing evidence to back up his claims. It certainly does not help Bill Clinton's case that his track record in treating women is not too good (e.g., Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, etc.). It will be very interesting to see how MSM covers this story over the next few days.

Update: Anklebiting Pundits, Captain Ed, Polipundit and Power Line all share my doubts about Klein's allegations.

A Hollywood Fiction Becoming a Reality

In the 1997 movie, Face/Off, John Travolta's character, Sean Archer, has his face removed and replaced with the face of Nicholas Cage's character, Castor Troy, in order to infiltrate Troy's criminal organization. At the time of the movie, the procedure sounded and looked like pure science fiction, but now such a procedure could become a reality. Two medical centers in the U.S. are in the final phases of planning for the first human face transplant for an individual who's face has been severely disfigured by trauma, tumors or burns.

How does the procedure work? Incisions are made on the donor's face from just below the hairline to below the chin. The skin and underlying tissue is removed. Then surgeons remove the face of the recipient, clamping off veins and arteries to block the blood flow. After that, microsurgeons attach the recipient's severed arteries and veins to the donor's facial tissue (the facial donor like most organ donors is a human cadaver). The nerves are connected, then the muscles and skin. The procedure would take anywhere from 12 to 24 hours (Note: The Chicago Tribune has a very informative Flash presentation on how this surgerical procedure works and is my source for how the procedure works). The person receiving the new face would then be required to take immunosuppressive drugs, similar to an organ transplant recipient. The person could required to take the medication for the rest of their life. Unlike Face/Off, the person would not have the exact same face as the donor, but rather a blend of their former face and the donor's face.

Unsurprisingly, the thought of performing such an operation has generated quite of bit of controversy in the medical community with one side saying that this procedure might be the only way for severely disfigured people to live normal lives and the other side saying the procedure won't save or prolong life and is too risky. Personally, if this procedure can be performed safely, does not have dire long-term side effects and is only used in the rare instances where a person's face is severely disfigured, then this procedure should be allowed to be performed. Sadly, we live in a world where looks matter and to give these individuals who in many cases have been shunned by society a chance to live a normal life is something that the medical community should pursue.

Quote of the Day

"Who amongst us can honestly say that they have not slept with a 12-year-old boy after sharing some alcohol and pornography in the company of a chimpanzee."

-Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

Michael Jackson Supporters Get Their Due

Even though Michael Jackson has not had a hit CD with original music in almost 15 years, he still has a number of fervent fans based on the people who have camped out for months outside a Santa Maria courthouse to support Jackson. Many of these Jackson supporters have quit their jobs and moved out to California in order to maintain the vigil. Many of these Jackson supporters also match Jackson in general weirdness. These people deserve to be made fun of. Thankfully, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was sent out to interview some of these people and hilarity ensued.

Proof that you can use the Bible to Justify Anything

Apparently God wants us to engage in threesomes, have anal sex, perform oral sex and take Viagra.

If I Only had $11,000 Lying Around

I would have bought this on Ebay in a heartbeat.

There's hope

...for nerds like me.

Hat tip: InstaPundit

Sudan News Round-Up

Since its been about a month since I did my last round-up on Sudan, I figured it would be a good time for another news round-up and see if I should share Nicholas Kristof's pessimism of the situation.

The International Criminal Court is going to begin an investigation into the war crimes committed in the Darfur region. They hope to complete their investigation in a few months, which could lead to war criminals to be indicted and then extradited to The Hague.

In his latest column in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof continues to paint a bleak picture of the situation in Sudan. Kristof claims that Sudan is engaging in a "policy of systematic rape" by failing to protect woman from gang rape and then placing some of these rape victims in prison for adultery.

US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick visited the Darfur region on Friday and urged the Sudanese government to disarm the Janjaweed. Zoellick's comments came on the heals of President Bush's comments on Wednesday, calling the killings in Sudan genocide.

The African Union (AU), which has 2,700 troops currently in Sudan to maintain the ceasefire between the Sudan government and Darfur's ethnic minority rebels, is seeking $460 million for military equipment and logistical support to increase their troop level to 7,700 by September. So far counties have pledged close to $300 million with $50 million coming from the U.S. Along with maintaining the cease-fire, Zoellick wants AU troops to be deployed to the refugee camps in order to prevent the number of rapes and attacks that have occurred against the residents of the camp.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which is providing food to the millions of people displaced by the conflict will begin to airlifting food supplies to the refugees as increasing attacks on the aid convoys has made it too risky to use the roads to deliver aid.

Sudan released two aid workers who were arrested after they released a report that they had treated 500 women were raped.

The situation in Sudan certainly does not look good right now, but the situation could improve significantly if the countries follow through on their pledges to fund an increase in AU manpower, which would allow the AU to be better able to protect the refugee camps.

I Thought I Escaped This

I grew up in an affluent suburb of Chicago and people bitched about the stupidest things. They bitched about how loud the music is played outdoors at restaurants downtown even though it wasn't as loud as the traffic going by on the street. They bitched about the bike paths being built hundreds of feet away from their properties. They bitched about how late the lights could be on at baseball fields. I thought when I moved away from there, I would not have to listen to such trival municipal squabbles. But apparently, whenever there is money, people need to find something to bitch about. Case in point, McLean, VA, a very affluent suburb of Washington, D.C. The West Lewinsville Heights Citizens Association is going to the Virginia Supreme Court against Fairfax County over an issue that could to tear this country's moral fiber apart, soccer fields that are within a few hundred feet of the neighborhood.

The homeowner's association is upset that Fairfax County approved the building of the fields without discussing it with them. The homeowner's association claims that the soccer fields create too much noise and have their lights on until 10 PM. Oh the humanity!! You would think that the way the homeowner's association is bitching about these soccer fields that 10,000 people come to these soccer fields every weekend and root during their son's or daughter's game like they were watching Liverpool or Manchester United. But that is not the case. What is really burning their ass is that the soccer league that plays there, McLean Youth Soccer, is allowing Marymount University (located in Arlington County) to play there and up to 150 people show up to watch their games. Are you kidding me? What's even more unbelievable about this situation is that even if the homeowner's association wins this lawsuit, it will only ban Marymount University from playing there. So people who live in the neighborhood will still have to deal with all this "noise" and the lights being on until 10 PM.

While to most rationally thinking people, this dispute seems to be quite petty, the people in Fairfax County seem to thrive on being petty. Recently, when another park was being built in McLean, the neighbors near the park stipulated that "musical performances there be limited to non-amplified '5-string and/or woodwind instruments.'" If I ever become like any of these people in Fairfax County, I want somebody to hit me repeatedly.

Not Quite a Win One for the Gipper Speech

Following a loss to Florida Christian High School, Gulliver Prep School Head Coach Lazer Collazo decided to use an unique method to inspire his team to play better in future games:

According to a Coral Gables police report, Gulliver Prep School baseball coach Lazer Collazo dropped his pants, took out his penis, pointed at it and his testicles, and asked the team if they "had a set of these or were they equipped with a vagina."

Surprisingly, his new motivational technique did not quite click with the players and subsequently has been forced to resign.

Hat tip: Collegehumor.com

Some Good Advice

Assuming that I decide to go to law school, one potential place I could see myself working at is the public defender's office. If I decide to work at such a place, I probably want to pass on most of this advice to my clients.

Hat tip: Collegehumor.com

The New QB Coach

Yesterday the Irish were dealt a big blow when David Cutcliffe had to step down as the QB coach due to lingering health problems from a heart attack he suffered a few months ago. Cutcliffe was one of Weis's biggest coaching staff coups, as he not only has substantial experience as a college head coach and a college offensive coordinator, but he is also regarded as quarterback guru with Peyton Manning and Eli Manning as two of his prized pupils. It's unfortunate that Irish fans won't be able to see Cutcliffe work his magic with Brady Quinn. I'd like to wish Coach Cutcliffe a speedy recovery. While the loss of Cutcliffe hurts, it was not unexpected by Weis, who allegedly already has a replacement lined up in Pete Vaas. I'm not too familiar with Vaas, though, he was the Notre Dame QB coach in 1991 and Rick Mirer was not too shabby that year. Vaas at a minimum should be a pretty good recruiter as he moonlights as a motivational speaker (hat tip: Irish Condo).

Update: It's official.

Update 2: Blue-Gray Sky has a nice round-up of Vaas's coaching resume.

It's Too Bad that I'm not 6'2" and I Can't Run a 4.4 40

Then I would get to watch training videos like this for my "job":

[49ers public relations director Kirk] Reynolds opens the film sitting behind the mayor's desk, then goes to Chinatown, where a 49ers team consultant uses racial slurs about the Chinese community. Next comes a topless, lesbian wedding filmed at a strip club and officiated by Reynolds, again impersonating the mayor.

"I know the courts say we can't do this," says Reynolds, before the happy couple engages in heavy petting. "We make our own rules here in San Francisco."

Reynolds then goes to SBC Park, where as the "mayor" he throws out the opening pitch, then takes a bribe from the catcher, who thanks him for supporting "hookers and booze."

"You do something controversial, you say something controversial, it will have an impact on this team. So remember, be mindful of your actions," Reynolds says, wearing only a towel before joining three topless blondes for a group hug in a strip club's dressing room. "What you do is not only a reflection of yourself. It's a reflection of the San Francisco 49ers."

San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsome was not amused and called the video "reprehensible". I think Newsome is overreacting. The video was meant to be over-the-top, so the players would actually pay attention to the message of the video that how you behave will determine how you and the team is perceived.