John Edwards Vows To End All Bad Things By 2011

Al Gore Caught Warming Globe To Increase Box Office Profits

Think you've had a bad day?

How does this happen?

http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070607/News01/706070318

Oscar Charleston

This post is part of a series of my thoughts on historical baseball players that I find interesting. I was reading through Bill James Baseball Abstract the other night and found that he had Oscar Charleston ranked as the 4th greatest player of all time. The famous John McGraw, who knew a thing or two about baseball, once said that Oscar was the greatest he had ever seen play, even better than Ty Cobb. And McGraw saw them all play: Walter Johnson, Christy Matthewson, Honus Wagner, Cy Young, Tris Speaker, etc. This intrigued me. Who was this Oscar Charleston?

Oscar Charleston

1896-1954

Teams: Indianapolis ABC's, New York Lincoln Stars, Chicago American Giants, St. Louis Giants, Harrisburg Giants, Hilldale, Homestead Grays, Pittsburgh Crawfords , Toledo Crawfords, Indianapolis Crawfords, Philadelphia Stars, Brooklyn Brown Dodgers, Indianapolis Clowns

Career Summary: Charleston was an All-Star in the Negro Leagues in 1933-35. He was elected to the Hall of Fame by the special committee on Negro Leagues in 1976.

Oscar Charleston was a true superstar of the Negro Leagues. He was a cross between the hitting ability of Ty Cobb and, at 6-foot, 190 pounds, the body of Babe Ruth.

For a player of his size with his tremendous power, Charleston was also a skilled base runner and a threat to steal bases. Writers dubbed Charleston as “The Black Ty Cobb.” Those who played with him insist that Charleston was far superior defensively than Cobb and possessed far more power than the Georgia Peach.

With his tremendous speed, Charleston could play shallow centerfield and still have the ability to run down long drives. Many compared his style of defense to that of Tris Speaker.
“Charleston could hit that ball a mile,” Dizzy Dean said. “He didn’t have a weakness. When he came up, we just threw it and hoped like hell he wouldn’t get a hold of one and send it out of the park.”

Charleston had a legendary temper and became famous for his many fights with other players, umpires, owners and scouts. According to legend, Charletson ripped the hood off a Klansman and dared him to speak.

His career as a player and manager spanned 40 years. Available statistics show Charleston batted .353 in his career. He played in 53 exhibition games against white major league players and hit .318 with 11 home runs.

As a manager, he was tough and demanding and very protective of his rookie players. A look at the career of Oscar Charleston by year:

• 1896 - Oscar Charleston was born in Indianapolis.
  
• 1910 - Charleston joined the army when he was 14 or 15. Stationed in the Philippines, Charleston got a chance to play baseball and run track. (Records show he ran the 220-yard dash in 23 seconds.)
  
• 1915 - Charleston returned to his hometown and joined the ABC’s as a player. He had grown up as a bat boy for the team and now had the opportunity to star with the team. With his speed, Charleston was able to cover much of the outfield. During his rookie season, Charleston and another ABC’s player got into a fight with an umpire and Charleston was held on $1,000 bond. Charleston was suspended by the team owner.
  He wrote a letter to the public to apologize. “The fact is that I could not overcome my temper as often times ball players can not…. I consider the incident highly unwise.”
  
• 1916 - Charleston was a part of the ABC’s team that beat the Chicago American Giants to capture the Black World Series.
  
• 1920 - The Negro National Leagues are formed and Charleston returns to the ABC’s. Chicago American Giants owner Rube Foster returned Charleston to his first team as a way of balancing the power in the league.
  
• 1921 - Charleston led the league in hitting (.426), triples (10), home runs (14) and stolen bases (28), collecting 79 hits in 50 games.
  
• 1922 - He becomes player-manager for the Harrisburg Giants of the Eastern Colored League. He continues to serve as player-manager through the 1925 season.
  
• 1925 - Charleston led the Eastern Colored League with a .445 batting average and helps the Giants to a second-place finish.
  
• 1928-1931 - In two-year stays with Hilldale and Homestead, Charleston hits .347.
  
• 1930 - Charleston became a member of the legendary Homestead Grays. There he teamed with such Negro League stars as Smokey Joe Williams, Judy Johnson and Josh Gibson. The Grays won a 10-game championship series with the Lincoln Giants. The Giants featured Chino Smith.
  
• 1932 - Financier Gus Greenlee raids the Grays and moves Charleston and other stars to his Pittsburgh Crawfords. Charleston becomes the manager. The independent team finished the season 99-36 record and Charleston hit .363, second on the team to Josh Gibson.
  
• 1933-35 - Charleston appeared in three East-West All-Star Games.
  
• 1935 - Charleston managed the Crawfords to a Negro National League championship over the New York Cubans.
  
• 1941-50 - Charleston managed the Philadelphia Stars.
  
• 1945 - Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey formed the United States league as a way to evaluate black players for possible integration into Major League Baseball. Charleston signed on as a scout.
  
• 1954 - Charleston managed the Indianapolis Clowns to a league championship in his last season in professional baseball. In October of that year, Charleston suffered a stroke and fell down a flight of stairs. He died a few days later.
  
• 1976 -- Charleston was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Committee on Negro Baseball Leagues.

Shrek Sneaks onto American Idol!

So I flip on American Idol last night, haven't watched it at all this year, only to see Shrek dressed up as Whitney Houston! Not only that, but Shrek made it to the top 3! Unfortunately, Shrek (Megan Doolittle) was eliminated last night.

Interesting

The M's have the 4th worst ERA overall, and the #1 worst ERA in the majors with runners in scoring position.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/stats/byteam?cat=Situational&cut_type=39&conference=MLB&year=season_2007&sort=837

Tidbits

"Two or three guys can get hot, but the whole team? No," Batista said. "Something's happening."

Yes, Miguel, that "something happening" is called you getting shelled.

The right-hander lasted just 2 2/3 innings in his second start against New York in six days and said afterward that the Yankees hitters "had a good idea what was coming."

The Mariners will check out the video of Saturday night's game to see if they can detect something that Miguel Batista did to tip off some of his pitches.

To catch a thief: When Ichiro Suzuki stole two bases in Friday night's game, it marked the 34th time in his Major League career that he's swiped more than one base in a game.
He also extended his streak of consecutive thefts without being caught to 43, extending his own American League record. The Major League mark is 50, set by Vince Coleman from Sept. 18, 1998, to July 26, 1999. Ichiro hasn't been caught stealing since April 19, 2006.

And who will replace the mighty Julio Mateo?

http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070513&content_id=1963063&vkey=news_sea&fext=.jsp&c_id=sea

Are you ugly? It might be best that you blow yourself up.

Some Women See Escape in Their Martyrdom

TIME MAGAZINE -- MAY 14

Palestinian women who sign on to become suicide bombers often are driven by something other than a desire for vengeance against Israel. For many, terrorism offers an escape from dire circumstances -- the looming punishment for an extramarital affair, for example, or the prospect of an undesired arranged marriage.

"Palestinian women, far more than men, tend to choose self-sacrifice as an exit from personal despair," says Time's Tim McGirk. Since 2002, 88 Palestinian women have attempted suicide bombings; eight have succeeded. Like male suicide bombers, these women often are promised a special place in paradise for their martyrdom.

Many of the women are motivated like their male counterparts by a desire to inflict brutal revenge. In 2003, successful lawyer Hanadi Jaradat killed 21 Israelis and herself after Israeli soldiers raided her home and killed her brother and fiancé, both militants.

But in interviews with survivors, Israeli intelligence agents have identified some major differences between female and male suicide bombers. The women tend to be less introverted, older and better educated than the men. They also commonly receive less preparation and training for their attacks, ranging from days to weeks. That might explain why so many women backed away from pulling the trigger at the last moment. One teenager volunteered for suicide missions after she was forbidden to marry her boyfriend.

Suicide bombing can be a way to make up for social shame. Militants had convinced Wafa Samir al-Bliss that her disfiguring burn scars meant she would never marry and "was better off as a martyr." In the end, her suicide belt failed to detonate.

Palestinians in Gaza say that Reem Riyashi, who carried out a suicide bombing in 2004, had had an affair with a senior Hamas official. When her husband found out, she was reportedly offered suicide bombing as a chance to avoid the death sentence she risked if her affair became public.

No Satisfaction: Why WhatYou Have Is Never Enough

WALL STREET JOURNAL
Jonathan Clements
May 2, 2007; Page D1

We may have life and liberty. But the pursuit of happiness isn't going so well.
As a country, we are richer than ever. Yet surveys show that Americans are no happier than they were 30 years ago. The key problem: We aren't very good at figuring out what will make us happy.
We constantly hanker after fancier cars and fatter paychecks -- and, initially, such things boost our happiness. But the glow of satisfaction quickly fades and soon we're yearning for something else.
Similarly, we tell our friends that our kids are our greatest joy. Research, however, suggests the arrival of children lowers parents' reported happiness, as they struggle with the daily stresses involved. Which raises the obvious question: Why do we keep striving after these things? Experts offer two explanations.

• We aren't built to be happy. Rather, we are built to survive and reproduce. We wouldn't be here today if our ancestors didn't struggle mightily to protect and feed their families. The promise of happiness, meanwhile, is just a trick to jolly us along. "This is an incentive scheme for the benefit of our genes," argues Boston money manager Terry Burnham, co-author of "Mean Genes." "It's a very fundamental trick that's played on us, this lure of perpetual bliss." Don't like the idea that we're hoodwinked by some hard-wired set of ancient instincts? Blame it, instead, on societal beliefs. Working hard and raising children may not make us happier. But these beliefs keep society functioning -- and those who embrace them prosper and end up passing these values onto their children.

• We're bad at forecasting. Consider a study by academics Daniel Kahneman and David Schkade. They asked university students in the Midwest and Southern California where they thought someone like themselves would be happier -- and both groups picked California, in large part because of the better weather. Yet, when asked how satisfied they were with their own lives, both groups were equally happy.
  "When you're thinking about moving to California, you're thinking about the beaches and the weather," says Mr. Schkade, a management professor at the University of California at San Diego. "But you aren't thinking about the fact that you'll still be spending a lot of time in the grocery store or doing chores. People emphasize differences that are easy to observe ahead of time and forget about the similarities."
  When we predict what will make us happy, we're also influenced by how we feel today. If we buy the weekly groceries just after we've had lunch, we will shop much more selectively. The downside: A few days later, we will be staring unhappily into an empty refrigerator.
  Maybe most important, we fail to anticipate how quickly we will adapt to improvements in our lives. We think everything will be wonderful when we move into the bigger house. We don't realize that, after a few months, we will take the extra space for granted.
  Experience should help us avoid repeating such mistakes. But it doesn't, in part because we don't accurately recall how we really felt, says Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert, author of "Stumbling on Happiness." One example: We work devilishly hard to get that next promotion, because we're sure it will leave us elated. We forget that, when we last got promoted, it was a bit of a letdown. With any luck, just knowing we are susceptible to these pitfalls will help.
  But you might also try a reality check, Prof. Gilbert says. Suppose you think you will be happier if you move to a small rural town, adopt a child, or quit your job and become a high-school math teacher. Don't rely on the opinions of people who live in small towns, have adopted kids or become teachers. Instead, spend some time observing these folks -- and see whether they're happy.
  Becoming a teacher "sounds quite romantic," Prof. Gilbert says. "But hanging around high-school math teachers may quickly disabuse you of that notion."
  

Hitchens on Tenet

This is an interesting editorial on former FBI director George Tenet's attempt to blame the Bush administration for the CIA's intelligence mistakes:

http://politics.slate.msn.com/id/2165269/nav/tap1/

Sweet Bench Dude

Here I am modeling my sexy new work bench. It took longer than expected, but well worth it.

Hold your breath

We are trusting our beloved team to this fellow, Jeff Weaver tomorrow night.
Look at the bright side: how can he possibly not improve his 31.50 ERA?

Announcement

I'm running for prez in '08

Thanks Bill

Our #1 draft pick was recently claimed on waivers. Michael Garciaparra had his best overall season in 2006, batting a combined .311 in 70 games with Triple-A Tacoma and Double-A San Antonio.

He was claimed on waivers because he didn't make the roster, to make room for guys like Arthur Rhodes.

Speaking of him, Arthur Rhodes did make the roster, got his contract, and now had a career ending injury.

So bye bye #1 draft pick.

Seems like this kind of stuf happens alot with the M's.

Wake me up when Bavasi is no longer GM.

An interesing editorial.

A Shariah official canes a woman after she was convicted of unlawful contact with an unmarried man, Indonesia, January 2006.

The Trouble With Islam
By TAWFIK HAMID
April 3, 2007; Page A15
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Not many years ago the brilliant Orientalist, Bernard Lewis, published a short history of the Islamic world's decline, entitled "What Went Wrong?" Astonishingly, there was, among many Western "progressives," a vocal dislike for the title. It is a false premise, these critics protested. They ignored Mr. Lewis's implicit statement that things have been, or could be, right.
But indeed, there is much that is clearly wrong with the Islamic world. Women are stoned to death and undergo clitorectomies. Gays hang from the gallows under the approving eyes of the proponents of Shariah, the legal code of Islam. Sunni and Shia massacre each other daily in Iraq. Palestinian mothers teach 3-year-old boys and girls the ideal of martyrdom. One would expect the orthodox Islamic establishment to evade or dismiss these complaints, but less happily, the non-Muslim priests of enlightenment in the West have come, actively and passively, to the Islamists' defense.
These "progressives" frequently cite the need to examine "root causes." In this they are correct: Terrorism is only the manifestation of a disease and not the disease itself. But the root-causes are quite different from what they think. As a former member of Jemaah Islamiya, a group led by al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, I know firsthand that the inhumane teaching in Islamist ideology can transform a young, benevolent mind into that of a terrorist. Without confronting the ideological roots of radical Islam it will be impossible to combat it. While there are many ideological "rootlets" of Islamism, the main tap root has a name -- Salafism, or Salafi Islam, a violent, ultra-conservative version of the religion.
It is vital to grasp that traditional and even mainstream Islamic teaching accepts and promotes violence. Shariah, for example, allows apostates to be killed, permits beating women to discipline them, seeks to subjugate non-Muslims to Islam as dhimmis and justifies declaring war to do so. It exhorts good Muslims to exterminate the Jews before the "end of days." The near deafening silence of the Muslim majority against these barbaric practices is evidence enough that there is something fundamentally wrong.
The grave predicament we face in the Islamic world is the virtual lack of approved, theologically rigorous interpretations of Islam that clearly challenge the abusive aspects of Shariah. Unlike Salafism, more liberal branches of Islam, such as Sufism, typically do not provide the essential theological base to nullify the cruel proclamations of their Salafist counterparts. And so, for more than 20 years I have been developing and working to establish a theologically-rigorous Islam that teaches peace.
Yet it is ironic and discouraging that many non-Muslim, Western intellectuals -- who unceasingly claim to support human rights -- have become obstacles to reforming Islam. Political correctness among Westerners obstructs unambiguous criticism of Shariah's inhumanity. They find socioeconomic or political excuses for Islamist terrorism such as poverty, colonialism, discrimination or the existence of Israel. What incentive is there for Muslims to demand reform when Western "progressives" pave the way for Islamist barbarity? Indeed, if the problem is not one of religious beliefs, it leaves one to wonder why Christians who live among Muslims under identical circumstances refrain from contributing to wide-scale, systematic campaigns of terror.
Politicians and scholars in the West have taken up the chant that Islamic extremism is caused by the Arab-Israeli conflict. This analysis cannot convince any rational person that the Islamist murder of over 150,000 innocent people in Algeria -- which happened in the last few decades -- or their slaying of hundreds of Buddhists in Thailand, or the brutal violence between Sunni and Shia in Iraq could have anything to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Western feminists duly fight in their home countries for equal pay and opportunity, but seemingly ignore, under a façade of cultural relativism, that large numbers of women in the Islamic world live under threat of beating, execution and genital mutilation, or cannot vote, drive cars and dress as they please.
The tendency of many Westerners to restrict themselves to self-criticism further obstructs reformation in Islam. Americans demonstrate against the war in Iraq, yet decline to demonstrate against the terrorists who kidnap innocent people and behead them. Similarly, after the Madrid train bombings, millions of Spanish citizens demonstrated against their separatist organization, ETA. But once the demonstrators realized that Muslims were behind the terror attacks they suspended the demonstrations. This example sent a message to radical Islamists to continue their violent methods.
Western appeasement of their Muslim communities has exacerbated the problem. During the four-month period after the publication of the Muhammad cartoons in a Danish magazine, there were comparatively few violent demonstrations by Muslims. Within a few days of the Danish magazine's formal apology, riots erupted throughout the world. The apology had been perceived by Islamists as weakness and concession.
Worst of all, perhaps, is the anti-Americanism among many Westerners. It is a resentment so strong, so deep-seated, so rooted in personal identity, that it has led many, consciously or unconsciously, to morally support America's enemies.
Progressives need to realize that radical Islam is based on an antiliberal system. They need to awaken to the inhumane policies and practices of Islamists around the world. They need to realize that Islamism spells the death of liberal values. And they must not take for granted the respect for human rights and dignity that we experience in America, and indeed, the West, today.
Well-meaning interfaith dialogues with Muslims have largely been fruitless. Participants must demand -- but so far haven't -- that Muslim organizations and scholars specifically and unambiguously denounce violent Salafi components in their mosques and in the media. Muslims who do not vocally oppose brutal Shariah decrees should not be considered "moderates."
All of this makes the efforts of Muslim reformers more difficult. When Westerners make politically-correct excuses for Islamism, it actually endangers the lives of reformers and in many cases has the effect of suppressing their voices.
Tolerance does not mean toleration of atrocities under the umbrella of relativism. It is time for all of us in the free world to face the reality of Salafi Islam or the reality of radical Islam will continue to face us.

Dr. Hamid, a onetime member of Jemaah Islamiya, an Islamist terrorist group, is a medical doctor and Muslim reformer living in the West.

Opening Day!

Here are some pics from opening day. The Moose surprised everyone by popping out on the roof. Felix pitched a gem. Opening day should be a national holiday.

The Nuclear Bench

I'm building a workbench that needs to double as a bomb shelter. So it has 4x6 posts up front and 4x4 posts in the back. It is overkill, but sturdy.

My Bruthaz

Here's Doug, on the right. He lives in California and says dude a lot.

This is Kevin, the oldest of the brothers four. He is a graphic designer, as you can tell by the picture.

This is Justin, a.k.a., "the dot communist." He once took up sewing to make his own uniforms. Now he is in Chicago with the rest of the commies. There is also Ranger, the dog of the house.

Baseball's Here

Opening day is around the corner, and Erin says that Carson is a bit too young to venture out to Safeco. So the little guy will have to come with me next year. I pulled out this picture of a Mets vs. Yankees "Subway Series." We bought tickets in the very last row at Shea stadium, and behind us there was nothing but a chain link fence that would let the freezing ocean winds were killing us. Brandon was so cold that he was forced to buy a Mets beanie just to avoid freezing to death. I won't talk about the Mets heartbreaking season, which still gets me choked up. Its the closest I've been to the World Series. I'll give my thoughts on the M's coming up.

MARCH MADNESS RIVALRY!

Thursday night, the night before we had the baby, a much anticipated showdown took place between the Bellevue 8th single adult ward B-ball team, led by Tony Gibbs, versus Issaquah 3rd ward, with Tony's longtime rival Greg, aka "hook shot". You can see in this picture Greg shooting right over Tony, #45, as he stands in a stupor.

Tony was sportin' the big pipes, but unfortunately they went largely un-used, as his fear of shooting limited him to a passing-rebounding role.


B-8 ultimately won the game, the not-so-secret ingredient being a bunch of ringers they brought in from Bally's athletic club. Thanks to my sweetheart Erin, who cheered (laughed) me on and took these pictures, while experiencing mild contractions, and then gave birth to Carson 12 hours later!

Griffey Injures Neck

I just thought this pic of Griffey was funny. "Help, I hurt me neck!"
Is Griffey the greatest center-fielder of his generation? ESPN claims so. You could certainly make the argument he is the most talented. But the latter half of his career has been a serious disappointment.

Intervention Time?

This has gone on too long. Its time to confront Kevin about his self-destructive lifestyle. And what's going on with that hat?

Cool pictures of the sun.

I don't really think about the sun very much. But these pictures are amazing. They were taken recently by a new Japanese satellite. Each one of those explosions on the sun's surface is between 8000-16,000 kilometers tall.

fishin on the provo river this summer, and out pops this moose. nearly had to change my waders. he looks like he is about to charge. he was no bullwinkle.

that moose must have scared away all the big browns because all I caught was this little feller. Yup, it was all the moose's fault, no doubt.

Power Tools

This is my nail gun. It is fun to play with. If you need anything nailed, call me and I will do it for free.

Weekend in review

1. Went to lunch and the range with Dad and Joe B. Dad shot his 404 and Joe shot this weird single shot 30-06 pistol. I should have got a picture.

2. Played with the new power tools, which include a nail gun, compressor, and circular saw (hitachi). I'm an almost all hitachi tool man. Check out the family blog to see pics of the beadboard in the nursery, it turned out really nice.

3. Put together this piece of crap cabinet by Coleman (see pic). The back of it was, no joke, made of paper! So I threw the paper away and cut a plywood backing to it. It will do okay to hold paint and other things I don't care about in an unnoticed corner of the garage.

The question is, what is the best garage storage cabinet for the money? Costco makes great shelves, but I want something enclosed to keep dust out.

I'm thinking about these ones from lowes:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=30928-46-GALG36KDSG&lpage=none

Welcome to my System.

Greetings friends, family, and others. This blog is a random collection of things I find interesting. Feel free to leave comments.