Wednesday, September 22, 2010

I'm not getting excited about the Giants this year

Even though they are a good team making a great playoff run, I'm finding it difficult to get too enthused.  Why?  Most of their hitters aren't "real" Giants, who have come up from the minors and you've been able to follow as they develop.  Few of them have played even a year for the team.  I'm not feeling a "connection".

Check out their roster.  Or, even better, the box score from tonight's game.

Cody Ross joined the Giants August 22nd.  One month ago.
Freddy Sanchez joined them late 2009.  So he's been here roughly a year.
Aubrey Huff joined the beginning of 2010
Buster Posey is a real Giant.  Hooray!
Pat Burrell joined the middle of 2010
Jose Guillen joined the Giants the middle of August of this year.
Pablo Sandoval is a real Giant.  (Except he's awful right now)
Juan Uribe is an "old-timer", he's been with the Giants now for two years, even if he didn't come up through their minor-league system.

So, of their eight starting fielders, only two came up through the Giant's minor-league.  Of the others, only one has been for the team much longer than a year.


Now, I enjoy following the Giant's pitchers, cause, for the most part, I've been able to follow their development, their struggles and their successes.  For example, I feel some pride and joy seeing Jonathan Sanchez harness his talent to achieve well-deserved success, since I've also seen him struggle.  There's a connection there.  But I could care less how Jose Guillen or Mike Fontenot does.

I'd like to see them make the playoffs, but I won't be rooting as hard as usual.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

The Strange World of Chess Politics steps into the Ground-Zero Mosque Quagmire

The World Chess Federation (FIDE) has offered to buy the site.

It's almost certainly a publicity stunt for the incumbent president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who was once abducted by aliens and is currently in a tight election contest with former world champion Anatoly Karpov.

Organized chess is really strange.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Is Jerry Brown a Tea Partier?

California Gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown (democrat)  has his first radio ad.




At the end, he says

"We have to start living within our means,
We need to return power and decision making to the local level, closer to the people,
and no new taxes without voter approval."

Hmm, Sarah Palin and Brown in 2012?

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Phil Cuzzi is an awful umpire

At least today.  I'm a SF Giants fan watching the Giants/Padres game today, and Cuzzi, the home plate umpire has made repeated bad ball and strike calls, all favoring the Giants.  A clear strike on Huff was called a ball (the catcher did catch it funny), Huff ended up on base instead of the 3rd out, and Posey hit a dinger.  Two runs for SF.   The same pitch, or worse, was repeatedly called a strike when a Padre was batting.

When Chase Headley was batting, he raised his arms as if to call time-out, then let the pitch happen and called Headly out on strikes.

Here's predicting some Padres get ejected by the end of the game.

Just think, if I were a Padres fan, I'd notice even more.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Two recent NY Times Editorials of interest

David Brooks writes about one possible cause of the American decline
"the U.S. has drifted away from the hardheaded practical mentality that built the nation’s wealth in the first place.
The shift is evident at all levels of society. First, the elites. America’s brightest minds have been abandoning industry and technical enterprise in favor of more prestigious but less productive fields like law, finance, consulting and nonprofit activism."
He's at least partially correct.  Since we are unlikely to stop buying foreign oil and cheap Chinese manufactures, we need to export something back.  If it's natural resources, we act like a colony, and our current strategy of producing and exporting treasury bonds is unsustainable.  We must continue to have sharp minds producing valuable technical manufactures for export to remain a strong and prosperous society.

Thomas Friedman writes a column with similar thoughts.  He largely cites a column by Robert Samuelson, which bemoans that students aren't motivated to do the hard work.
"Motivation comes from many sources: curiosity and ambition; parental expectations; the desire to get into a "good" college; inspiring or intimidating teachers; peer pressure."
to which Friedman adds
"We had a values breakdown — a national epidemic of get-rich-quickism and something-for-nothingism."
A good friend who teaches high-school says the same thing - the bailouts have been bad for student motivation.


I remember a recent TV ad for an on-line high school.  Some of the supposed benefits were that you got to take courses at your own pace and take tests at your own time.  For some students, this is a benefit.  But, the real lessons of high school are not that the square of the hypotenuse is the sum of the squares of the other two sides, nor that Jane Austen wrote a bunch of good books.  The real lessons are the world does not exist for the benefit of the students, and sometimes you have to take tests on somebody else's schedule.


Thursday, September 9, 2010

Thoughts on Koran Burning

As most people know, some obscure publicity seeking pastor is planning to burn Korans on 9/11.  I won't even dignify him with a link.  The act is clearly legal and protected First Amendment Speech.  It's also stupid.

In an ideal world, he'd get a little publicity, and some Muslims (and others) would protest and perhaps organize a non-violent response, such as burning bibles or declaring "National put a crucifix in a jar of urine day".  But they would realize that this is an isolated act by a small group.  And life would go on.

However, we live in a far from ideal world.  Radical Muslims will gain a propaganda boost, endangering our troops and out efforts in the Middle East.  The pastor should stop his plan.

I'm pleased that many prominent Americans have denounced the stunt.  But how about the most prominent American, President Obama?  Why hasn't he given a speech saying that he, like the overwhelming majority of Americans, disapproves of the stunt?  Actually, I just noticed, looks like he has started.  Good. He should also explain to foreigners that American is a free society where such stunts are Constitutionally protected.  I would like to see Bush joining in too.

My friend Ray has some different thoughts.  I really have to say that I disagree with his post on many points.

India is NOT Hindustan.  Maybe Pakistanis perceive it that way, but they are wrong.

If the natural assumption of those overseas is that the government should stop the stunt, that's exactly why Obama should explain that America is different, and the stunt is protected free speech.
"The local cops should arrest this guy, if he burns a Koran, and he should be prosecuted.  The reasons for doing this is that it is the only way for the US government to distance itself from Koran burning in the eyes of leaders of other states."
No.  Unless the pastor shouts fire in a crowded theatre or calls for the violent overthrow of the US government, what he's doing is clearly free speech.  Stupid free speech, but free speech.  People overseas should get used to it, and again, Obama should explain that. If Ray doesn't want to defend the free speech right of stupid idiots that he opposes, his concept of free speech is meaningless.

As for Bush declaring a "Crusade", yes, he used that word once and meant it in the meaning "this is a good thing, like Ike's Crusade in Europe".  It was a stupid mistake, historically tone-deaf.  Ray claims we acted remarkably like a Crusade - just how?  Very few Americans think we are on some Crusade to retake Jerusalem or protect pilgrim's rights in the Holy Land.

Frankly, for Ray to harp on the Crusade term incites angst amongst Muslims and offers recruiting benefits to our enemies.  Just like the stupid Koran burning.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

My bad, Rob Neyer is O.K.

Seems like he agrees with me on the great year Felix Hernandez is having.  He just fears that the Cy Young voters will overvalue wins and choose CC instead.  I wish he'd do a little educating or cheerleading.

Here's the article Neyer refers to.  Jason Rosenberg makes this point:  "King Felix will be the AL’s best pitcher in 2010 but will not win the Cy Young."


I hope he's wrong on the second part, but we will see.