San Jose vs. MLB, and a Math Puzzle

In a nutshell, I say bully for San Jose.  MLB and the SF Giants are using MLB's monopoly powers to restrain the commerce of the Athletics and San Jose.  With rare exceptions, this should be illegal.  And keeping the As in Oakland is also bad for baseball.  The As would be more competitive, and would drain less revenue sharing money, if they were in San Jose.  With the possible exception of the Giants, everybody wins.  And I think even they would come out slightly ahead.

But I'm writing in response to a post on Hardball Times which describes the pace of Bud Selig's Special Committee as "snail-like".  That is overly generous.

If you Google the speed of a snail, you get a few answers.  Here were my top hits.

Infoplease says 0.03 MPH, which is 13 millimeters (mm) per second.
Speedofanimals says about 1 millimeter per second.
Wikipedia also says 1 millimeter per second (which converts to 0.002 MPH)
Arnobrosi has several answers, combining all the above, plus a few notes from actual snail racers, which come in at around 3 millimeters per second.

So we have a range of speeds over an order of magnitude, between 1mm/sec and 13mm/sec.

MLB has been "studying" the move for four years.  A year is 31557600 seconds.  Let's round down to 3*10^7.  So our snail, in four years, can cover somewhere between 12*10^7 mm, (at the slowest speed of 1 mm/sec) up to 156*10^7mm (at 13mm/sec)

Google Maps says that the driving distance between Hegenberger Road in Oakland (site of their current stadium) and downtown San Jose (proposed new site) is 33.9 miles.  That converts to 54.56 kilometers.  Let's round up to 55 km.

Now that everything is in metric, the final math is easier.  A km is 10^6 mm.

Our fastest snail, the 13mm/sec one, can cover 1560 km in those four years.  It could do 14 round trips between Oakland and San Jose!

Even our slowest snail. the 1mm/sec one, can cover 120 km in those four years.  It could travel from Oakland to San Jose and back with plenty of time to grab a hot dog and beer.

In conclusion, MLB's pace has not been "snail-like".  It has been far slower than even the slowest snail.

Even if NSA Phone Tapping were legal, which it's not, it's a terrible idea

The NSA Phone metadata program is an overly broad, non-specific, and non-expiring search program.  Just like a Writ of Assistance.  Which is precisely why we have the 4th Amendment.  How can any constitutional scholar, elected official, or judge think otherwise?

Also, even if this were legal, it's a terrible idea.  It's trivial to imagine scenarios where this information could be used to manipulate or blackmail Americans.  And where is the whistleblower, Edward Snowden, now?  Apparently in Hong Kong.

Imagine if this metadata got into the hands of a foreign government, drug cartel, or terrorist group.  They could blackmail defense contractors, border guards, or guards at power plants.

As for the inane argument that if you weren't doing anything wrong you have nothing to hide:

Impeach Eric Holder

In testimony before Congress, Attorney General Eric Holder recently admitted to Senator Mark Kirk that the Executive Branch is spying on the Legislature and the Judiciary.  In reference to the recent Verizon / phone records expose:

Kirk: “Can you assure us no members of the Capitol building were monitored?”

Now, the only correct response is "Hell no".

Instead, Holder replied "With all due respect, senator, I don’t think this is an appropriate setting for me to discuss that issue."

That's a yes.

Kirk followed up with:  “I would hope we get absolute assurance no Supreme Court justice is involved in this Verizon thing.”

Holder replied:  “there was no intention to do anything of that nature to spy on members of Congress or members of the Supreme Court,”

Which means that they were spied on.  Which is immediate grounds for impeachment.