It Didn't Work

So he's finally back!!!

Don Imus and CBS, who let him go after the flare-up over his vocabulary back in April, have settled their breach of contract suit. Imus is now free to go, free to walk, and free to bring back his irreverent sense of humor and his great interviewing ways.

This is FANTASTIC news!!!

Yes, Imus is sometimes a little crude, and sometimes says things that polite society would wish he didn't, but, as he said in his self-defense, he's equal opportunity. I've been listening to Imus since I was in fourth grade, when I'd shiver in the car at the bus stop, listening to him with my dad. Yes, my dad is often a bit old-fashioned, but we'd laugh about this.

We'd also listen because Imus mattered. He brought in guests who mattered, people at the top of the profession who really make all the decisions or who know the inside group. It's why, even though his total audience numbers were way out of proportion to how the comments got blown up, people listened. And will listen again.

Of course, I wonder how many of his previous friends will be willing to call in and be interviewed now ... I wonder what would have happened if Imus had played the race card the way that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton did on him? Would it have gotten even uglier? Did Sharpton or Jackson ever listen to his program? But if their goal was to muzzle him and keep him away, it didn't work, and that's great news for the news business in this country and free speech.

About the only ones who came out looking good were the Rutgers women's basketball team. And now they have to ruin it by going and suing him ...

Did You Get the Memo?

A small piece in the Washington Post and with what's going on at NASA isn't getting much play right now, except for on conservative sites. Basically, NASA did it's math wrong and didn't correct for urbanization and the way that all the blacktops and reflective car windshields in heavily populated areas raise the temperature.

If what NASA says is correct, that when they corrected it only lowered the temperature average by 0.15 of a degree Celsius, then I have nothing to complain about. If they're wrong, and it actually did make a bigger difference, then .... maybe Rush should say something. I'm not doubting NASA too much, just saying something.

I think the bigger issue here is the global hysteria over global warming. Whether it's natural or man made, it looks like global temperatures may be rising. Hmm, don't think this has ever happened in the past? What about the fact that a subtropical ocean, where water temperature were 50 degrees Celsius, lived there in the past? Ever hear about the Ice Ages and how everything melted? What about the dinosaurs?

Look, global warming should not comes as a surprise. The only thing that I know about the weather is that it changes. It doesn't stay the same. So yeah, we need to plan for long-term climate fluctuations, and not just sit and take with what comes out right away. And if certain animals, like the polar bear or the Dodo, can't adapt, then they can join the fossil record like the dinosaurs and sabertoothed tigers, and Neanderthals, for that much. I don't understand how scientists, who believe in evolution, can get so worked up about seeing natual selection at work. I just don't. Can anyone else explain it to me?

Oh, and if you want to read a book that talks about how the ideal of the virgin, American landscape might not be true, read 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. It's eye-opening to say the least.

Vamos United!!!

If you haven't read it yet, it's an enjoyable Washington Post Style section feature on the lunatics who sit around me at DC United games. They're well worth the price of admission and they don't care about the weather. It does, however explain how the chant leaders are able to watch the game.

Big game tonight though, in the SuperLiga semis. We take on Beckham and the L.A. Galaxy again, this time at their place, instead of ours. I'll be up all night watching it of course.

IF United wins (knock on wood) then we'll host the Pumas of Pachuca, who beat Houston last night in a penalty shootout. I of course, did watch the game, even though it kept me up late. My thoughts:

The game was brutal in terms of heat and humidity, and you could see everyone was walking pretty much the whole second half.

I couldn't believe that Pachuca's 10 shirt, who came on to start the second half, couldn't even finish the half before picking up two yellow cards. Including one for diving. When was the last time that we've seen a dive by a forward get a yellow card from a Central American referee? Great call, although a little harsh to get sent off for to technical yellows, and no hard tackles.

How bad a penalty kick was that one taken by Ngwenya? I mean, mon Dieu!! Hit the ball, and at least make the keeper move.

Houston was lucky to be in that game.

The two second half goals were complete and utter garbage. Really. An American goalkeeper would have saved Robinson's header, or at least dived, and why was Onstad diving backwards? Both saveable, and it should have been a 1-1 tie.

Great job by the Houston fans. Very impressive guys and gals. Keep it up.

Why I Don't Want Girls ....

There are times when I think that I want to have kids down the road, and then there are times when I don't want to have them.

Someone sent me this rant, from Tech Liberation Front, and it had me laughing outloud. (And no, I will never LOL, ever). Go to the link, since I can't get the picture up on here, but man, is it funny.

Now, I totally can hear myself saying all the things that I have to say to the kids to explain why the dog is buried. But I seem to remember being the one who buried my pet iguana after my mom fried it one day. Found a nice big rock, put him under it in a foot deep hole and let him go. I hope the garden didn't swallow him up too much.

But yes, the Mattel toy recall is a big deal, and it's just funny that 1) someone sold to a toy company the idea that a pooping dog and a Barbie with a pooper scooper would sell; 2) that it actually did sell; 3) the fact that I can see myself thinking the same thing as the three year old. I mean, how old am I now that I'd say something like that? Yikes.

It also raises the fact that lead paint was a childhood problem for my parents generation, and maybe for current kids now. They turned out fine, are the leaders of the free world now. Let's relax and let kids have some fun.

P.S. Old Yeller still makes me bawl, but not as much as Where the Red Fern Grows. My kids will definitely be reading that one with me.

Holy Cow

The world of baseball and of any sports fan is a little less bright today. Yeah, I know I'm behind the newscycle, but I wanted to acknowledge Scooter Rizzuto.

Not only did he give us one of the best moments in Adam Sandler movie history ("Rirruto?"), he also gave us one of the great catchphrases in sports history. It's too damn bad that Harry Caray took it over.

I remember driving back home from family vacations in New Hampshire, and hitting the New York City area, getting stuck in traffic. The only positive was digging up Scooter on the broadcast, and turning it up. While I was an Orioles fan, and didn't much care about the Yankees, Rizzuto and the noise from the ballpark found a way to get me to pay attention a bit. I think the rest of the ride home my brother and I kept going "Holy Cow" to each other.

Baseball is losing the storytellers. About the only good one out there now is Jon Miller of the San Francisco Giants. Jon Miller is the man who got me into baseball, whose radio broadcasts on Summer evenings I'd lie in bed, arm hanging off the side of it and my head about to join it, volume turned down to a low, almost inaudible buzz until the seventh innning, when I'd finally nod off. It was story after story, and Jon would sometimes get caught on the air having to make a comment with two hot dogs in his mouth. I loved it.

Rizzuto was one of those storytellers. I think that's why I latched onto him on a Sunday afternoon in a hot car.

RIP Scooter

(And yes, it looks like Boss Steinbrenner actually is showing some class. As a fellow Eph, I'm happy to see that.

And if you don't get goosebumps from the press release's opening line:

I guess heaven needed a shortstop.

then you're not a baseball fan. Well done George.)

If I Only Had the Cash ...

... I'd invest in this: the NASDAQ Portal Market.

I mean, how coll does that sound? Minimum networth to invest is $100 million? No governmental reporting requirements? Away from the SEC's prying eyes?

You don't need governmental regulation here because, if you have $100 million to throw around, you're smart. The SEC is only there to keep public confidence in the stock market, confidence that is the keystone of the main arch that supports our entire financial system. But if you have enough money to throw around that paying cash for something like this isn't that big of a deal ... then you don't need a governmental safety net.

I think it makes sense, and, especially given the fact that the market is breaking up in terms of giving out cheap loans, getting another way for private companies to raise money without having to go public or go to banks and their interest rates is fun.

I just wonder how venture capitalists feel about this idea ... I could see something like this, and the rest of the private exchanges that the article talks about, opening up a way to bypass them. Which may mean that VC money will have to go back into securities. It's always nice to have more cash flow coming in.

Did Uncle Sam's Army Make the Trek?

The U.S. Men's U-17 team is in South Korea for the World Cup. Believe it or not, they have a blog set up for it, though it's not signed by anyone, so I wonder who's writing it.

If you want to read along with me, here is the link.

Looks like they like the software too. Someone on this roster is the one writing the thing.

But there have been some interesting posts. Like, since the U.S. team's first round opponent is Tajikstan, they got a homework assignment from a Coach Hackworth. (Are these kids in High School or something? And what's wrong with summer vacation?). Here's the post:

Last night, the coaches asked the players to do some homework... they were to research Tajikistan and each present after dinner tonight something they found out about the homeland of their first World Cup opponent. The players impressed (we knew they would), presenting information about religion, politics, geography and population.

Fun fact: In Tajikistan, bread is considered to have a life of it's own. Never drop breadcrumbs or throw bread away with the other trash (thanks, Kirk!).

I am definitely going to have to remember not to drop breadcrumbs.

The other highlight? Busan is definitely not Club Med:

It was a 14-hour flight, but it wasn't as bad as it sounds... each seat had individual monitors to play movies, games, music or shop whenever you wanted. Most of the team tried to sleep as much as possible to pass the time, but movie selections included Shrek 3, Blades of Glory and Fracture.

We then got excellent treatment at the Seoul airport while waiting for our connection. We had ample security and several liasons to take us to the VIP lounge for a short time before hopping on the flight to Busan. The flight to Busan was a bit bumpy, but short nonetheless... about 45 minutes from take off to touch down. Lots of police with automatic weapons guarded our path to the charter bus, and a police escort led us on our way.

I mean, automatic weapons pulled out to escort 16 year old kids from the plane to the bus? Uhhh, did I miss something? South Koreans now want to kill our soccer players? Are they still mad about this incident in Salt Lake City? Hey, I don't like Anton Ohno that much either, but I thought this was all taken care of (what you're looking for is 1:38 in).

All I know is, another post has been about "repelling" [sic] out of the building in a hazmat suit. Fun stuff. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT, ever book me a holiday stay in Busan, South Korea.

Guns or Butter

One of the sections of the Washington Post that I try and read most closely and most religiously is the Outlooks section. The Sunday Post is a bit of a guilty pleasure, because I should be doing more to get things done on Sunday instead of sitting around in a pair of shorts and just reading.

But I came across this article about Afghanistan and the current military-political situation.

Two things jumped out at me. One, this guy is a heck of a writer because look at his opening two grafs:

On a highway north of Kabul last month, an American soldier aimed a machine gun at my car from the turret of his armored Humvee. In the split second for which our eyes locked, I had a revelation: To a man with a weapon, everything looks like a threat.

I had served as an infantry officer in Afghanistan in 2001-02 and in Iraq in 2003, but this was my first time on the other end of an American machine gun. It's not something I'll forget. It's not the sort of thing ordinary Afghans forget, either, and it reminded me that heavy-handed military tactics can alienate the people we're trying to help while playing into the hands of the people we're trying to defeat.

Welcome to the paradoxical world of counterinsurgency warfare -- the kind of war you win by not shooting.

The second paragraph is exactly the type of thinking that hasn't happened enough. In the famous "battle for hearts and minds" that is what is most important, according to our military leaders, I know that I forget to think about it that way. And yeah, there is no way that I'm going to stare down the business end of a fully automatic machine gun and like the person shooting it at me. No way, that's way too frightening.

A lot of officers and people thinking about it do get that. That's why we have success when we remember these things, why Coke, MTV, jeans and American fashion have taken over the world. They're what people want.

That's not to say that sometimes you don't need to have people looking down the business end of a machine gun. There is a huge place for that, and, as we saw after the U.S. Embassy bombings and the lack of American response (thank you Bubba ... go with the light intern version next time), it's the only thing that makes radical Islam respect us. They see a lack of military response as being weak. We need "force projection" and it's worked to keep any terrorist attacks from coming over since we started using it. For that, my congratulations and thanks to the members of the Armed Forces who understand that and want to be over there. Godspeed.

The second point that the article raised for me though was that the Romans knew this. Here's the graf that made me think it most obviously:

Consider, for example, the question of roads. When U.N. teams begin building new stretches of road in volatile Afghan provinces such as Zabul and Kandahar, insurgents inevitably attack the workers. But as the projects progress and villagers begin to see the benefits of having paved access to markets and health care, the Taliban attacks become less frequent. New highways then extend the reach of the Karzai administration into previously inaccessible areas, making a continuous Afghan police presence possible and helping lower the overall level of violence -- no mean feat in a country larger and more populous than Iraq, with a shaky central government.

Isn't this what the legendary aphorism summed up so nicely: All roads lead to Rome? Why did the Romans build all those roads that linked everything together? Yes, partly it was to allow their centurions and Legions to march all over quickly, and in force, taking out any large population center. But it was also for the points that Nathaniel Fick makes, in that they realized that the Roman culture spread along the roads, allowed trade, and made everyone better off, reducing drastically the likelihood that Roman forces would have to march down them.

It's a lesson that those Centurions, standing in a building consciously built to mirror the marble of Roman architecture in a city that recalls the glories of Rome, can drive home to the next group of policy wonks getting off their Metro trains and heading to work on Capitol Hill every morning: the mix is what matters.

(If you want to learn more about Roman strategy in warfare, I highly recommend, as do most historians, Edvard Luttwak's The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire. Forces have a place, but so does peace.)

F**k off Duberry

And this is terrible news:

Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed that Wayne Rooney will be out of action for two months after suffering a hairline fracture of his left foot in Manchester United's game with Reading on Sunday.

I love Wayne Rooney, and not just because he's a former goaltender like yours truly. He just likes to play, and that "Joga Bonito" Nike commercial he filmed last year, with Tim Howard scoring the great goal was just perfect.

If anyone can find video evidence of Wayne in Match of the Week last year, miked up, telling the ref to "F**k off" over thirty times, please share in the comments section. A video I miss seeing.

Don't you have more important things to do ....

Like maybe focusing on running the country, or delivering on all your campaign promises?

Of course, if this is what you issue statements about and the type of sense that your press releases actually make, then I see the problem.

From House Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

“Tonight, Barry Bonds etched his name into baseball’s history books and took his rightful place among the sport’s immortals.

“It was a great night for baseball and a great night for San Francisco - the crowd went wild.

“It was particularly exciting to see Willie Mays embrace him on the field and see Hank Aaron congratulate him on the Jumbotron.

“As a season ticket holder, I am particularly glad it happened on the Giants’ Italian night.”

Did she write this herself or something? Was she drunk writing it? How many bases can one woman try and touch in one night? (Note to self, don't also say outloud some of the things you were thinking at the Angry Inch on Saturday. Second note: Can I say that about such a fine, upstanding woman as Nancy Pelosi?). And should I be worried about eating in Little Italy in Baltimore since clearly all the lead in the food and water up there has gone to her head?