Friday Boobies

Happy Friday.

A Blown Call

Bad call costs Galarraga perfect game.

Baseball makes the headline news because of a bad call. Major League Baseball is considering reversing the call in Armando Galarraga’s perfect game that wasn’t, and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm plans a resolution to declare Armando Galarraga pitched a perfect game Wednesday night (not quite sure how a state proclamation goes in the record books), and at least two members of congress are calling for hearings.

The best part of the story has been Gallarraga's remarkable class and grace under pressure. The man has shown amazing class, saying of the umpire "We’re human, we go make a mistake, nobody is perfect. In that situation everybody is focused to do their best thing." That's a pretty amazing statement, considering he was robbed of a spot in baseball history. He brought the 'lineup card' out to Joyce for today's game, and they shared a hug.

Related stories:

Armando Galarraga receives a Corvette consolation prize

[overthemonster.com] Joyce's Call Creates Not-So-Perfect Storm of MLB Controversy

[nymag.com] How a Botched Perfect-Game Call Brought Out the Best in Everybody (Except Us)

A few more thoughts on Armando Galarraga and Jim Joyce

Update: Selig says he won't reverse the call. Bud Selig to Examine Umpiring, Replay; Jim Joyce Call Will Not Be Changed.

Another Reason

Why I will never join Facebook or Twitter.

"Network" updates from shrub? No thanks. I really don't need more aggravation.

I Need Happier News

I don't want to blog about the death of the gulf. The latest Israeli assault on middle east peace puts me in a malaise. At least North and South Korea have backed away from blowing up their part of the world for now, but that doesn't exactly fill me with optimism. Hell, now Al and Tipper are separating.

I need some happier news. "Lemming" blogging just leaves me depressed.

My Kitchen is Too Small

Actually, my whole apartment is too small. But I couldn't fully inflate this boat in my kitchen. Which tells me that I need to get on a river. Any river. Spent the evening talking (and drinking) with fellow boatmen (but no trips). So I decided to blow up a boat, to make sure it was ready. But my kitchen is too small.

What's the point of having a kitchen if you can't inflate a boat in it?

Another Fine Boobie

Red Footed Friday.

Lifestyle Change

For the past fourteen years I've lived "vehicle-free"; that is I haven't owned a car. But that has now changed. I inherited a Honda Passport when my Brother-in-Law passed away.
I admit, I have really mixed feelings about this. I took a certain amount of pride in not being part of our culture of oil dependency and pollution. Where I live, I didn't (and still don't) really need a car, or the expenses one entails. And when I did need one, I could borrow or rent one.
But I really enjoy road trips. And river trips. And camping. Driving the Passport home from Reno, I remembered how much I enjoy the freedom to explore back country landscapes. To go places that I'd never heard of.
The main beneficiary of my owning a vehicle will be Sweaterman, who will no longer have to deal with me borrowing his truck every time I get an urge to travel. I've put a lot more miles on his truck than he has in recent years.
I have no intention of changing my daily routine. I'll still walk or use the bus here in town. But I already plan on traveling to Animas River Days in June, and the High Sierra Music Festival in July. And other trips could spring up.
So I'm now a part owner of the gulf oil spill. I feel guilty about that.

No Chicken Suit For You

I'm still in Nevada, and the state's politics are as weird as anywhere in the country. In order to protect the feelings of Sue "Chickens for Checkups" Lowden, the state has banned the wearing of chicken suits at polling places on election day.
I'm pretty certain that this violates the first ammendmant, which clearly includes the right to keep and wear chicken suits. Or, if it doesn't, it should.
Furries everywhere are furious, I'm sure.

Today's Boobies

Can't let a Friday slip by without some Boobies.

I Have An Excuse

Sorry about the lack of posts. I'm in Nevada (again), and busy with the real world. I should be returning to the exciting realm of espousing political observations (otherwise known as mental self-flagellation) soon. Refunds subject to manager approval.

Mind Numbing Stupidity

Satire is dead.

Faced with the disastrous gulf oil spill, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R, obviously) has a plan to bring more tourists to the gulf coast by offering people gas cards:

Gov. Haley Barbour said that the Mississippi Gulf Coast is open for business, despite the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In an effort to encourage tourism, Mississippi Gulf Coast officials are offering $75 gas cards for those who book a two-night stay at one of the participating hotels or resorts listed online at www.gulfcoast.org. Resident can also sign up online for a chance to win one of four getaway packages.

http://www.wapt.com/money/23556542/detail.html

Yeah, we'll pay for the gas to show you the cost of gas guzzling. Feel free to enjoy a day of tar ball collecting on the beach. At least the war on the environment is going well.

Friday Boobies

Debating important issues of the day.

Writing

Those who can't write, well they wrote about writing. So I like this:

somethingintellectual

1. Avoid alliteration. Always.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They’re old hat.)
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
8. Contractions aren’t necessary.
9. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
10. One should never generalize.
11. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”
12. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
13. Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.
14. Profanity sucks.
15. Be more or less specific.
16. Understatement is always best.
17. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
18. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be avoided.
21. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
22. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
23. Who needs rhetorical questions?

Remind me to follow at least a few of those rules.

Oil Rules

(cartoon from Outside the Interzone)

I've had absolutely zero enthusiasm for posting about serious topics lately. It's all too damn depressing, and bitching in a blog post doesn't improve my mood.

Take the gulf oil spill (please), an environmental disaster of epic proportions. It's the inevitable result of our oil dependant society, and a system that rewards corruption. Cheap, profitable oil is sacred, and government regulation is seen as an obscene abomination to be removed or avoided at all costs. BP ignored the old proverb about "an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure", choosing to scrimp on safety valves to reduce costs and increase profits. It was cheaper to buy looser regulations.

So it's somewhat positive that the Obama administration is making an attempt to reform the Minerals Management Service, an agency with the conflicted agenda of both promoting and regulating off-shore drilling:

The Obama administration is proposing to split up an Interior Department agency that oversees offshore drilling, as part of its response to the Gulf Coast oil spill, The Associated Press has learned.

An administration official who asked not to be identified because the plan is not yet public said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will urge that Congress approve splitting the Minerals Management Service in two. One agency would be charged with inspecting oil rigs, investigating oil companies and enforcing safety regulations, while the other would oversee leases for drilling and collection of billions of dollars in royalties.

Currently, the Minerals Management Service, an arm of the Interior Department, is responsible for collecting more than $10 billion a year from oil and gas drilling and with enforcing laws and regulations that apply to drilling operations.

Some critics have said the two roles are in conflict and are one reason the agency has long been accused of being too cozy with the oil and natural gas industry.

An internal investigation in 2008 described a "culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" by workers at the agency. The investigation by Interior's inspector general found workers at the MMS royalty collection office in Denver partied, had sex with and used drugs with energy company representatives. Workers also accepted gifts, ski trips and golf outings, the report by Inspector General Earl E. Devaney said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jYP7GoO9ldJALdGGRcHuadmF3y1gD9FKIM1O0

OK, it's really only a small step. The regulators and the industry were (sometimes literally) in bed together, and the results are now washing upon the shore. Separating the regulators from the promoters would at least encourage a moderate level of oversight, and a slight increase in safety.

But it's not going to solve the problem of our societies oil addiction: no winning politician is going to campaign on a platform of "we need to raise the price of gasoline" in the face of "drill, baby, drill". We'll have a nice little moratorium as the result of this disaster, then expand off-shore drilling as soon as the headlines have been forgotten.

And nothing I post on this little blog will have the slightest impact on that truth.

blarings

To some this may seem trivial, but to me and maybe a few others, a horrific symptom of the malaise of our society is that the trains passing through this town are no longer encouraged to sound their horns. Instead, at many train crossings, a long aluminum post with a speaker on top announces the arrival of a train with a recording of a train horn. It is a ghastly poor rendition of what a real BNSF train horn sounds like. Yep- to be sure, some of them trains is mighty loud, but at least there was a human being- the conductor carrying millions of dollars of freight to Barstow and no two train soundings was alike. And so consider the train horn-
As one fairly acquainted with music, train horns commonly play in unison two of the most dissonant intervals of the octave; 7ths and 2nds. These sort of intervals cannot form a triad-duh- the function of the noble, hardworking, BNSF train conductor is to scare things away from the tracks so he doesn't have to deal with turning them into jelly and bone fragments.
Every once in awhile I swear I heard a train sound a perfect 4th, wittily intersticed with the dissonance of his company policy. Some conductors compose their own blarings. What matters is
methinks a BNSF engine is equipped with a horn that is wind-driven. (one can just tell) Well I just hate that fucking robot train sound too close to my domicile. Emits the quality of bad cell-phone reception.
Does the conductor(oh yeah a good friend of mine is one) set his jaw with reticence to let a bad recording(always the same) announce his passage? Why do I sniff something Orwellian?
Zymurgian

The Art of War in Bones

I found these graphics quite dramatic. More at Francois Roberts Bone Sculptures Pic Gear.

Fresh Boobies

With very blue feet for Friday.

Birthday Wishes

Good friend and infrequent poster Zymurgian celebrates another trip around the sun today. I can't make fun of his age (I'm older), but he's reached one of those birthdays that end in "0", and may have to start acting like an adult someday soon. Nah...

This pic is kind of old, but it's one of my favorites - Atrocia coiled around Zymurgian's head.

Happy Birthday, dude!

Why the Arizona Immigration Law Will Fail

(pic from Lockwood at Outside the Interzone)

I had really hoped to avoid commenting on the odious, idiotic Arizona immigration law, also known as "Brown People-Your Papers Please", but the damn thing hasn't gone away yet. However, I do strongly believe that this racist piece of legislation is doomed to failure, and that the only question is which of its many flaws will be the initial cause of death. Consider:
1) The law as written is blatantly unconstitutional, clearly violating "probable cause" and "unreasonable search" provisions, as well as civil rights based on racial profiling. The lawsuits are already rolling in, and while the courts are usually slow they usually get it right.
2) Arizona's demographics will make the law unenforceable. The states population is roughly 30% hispanic, which isn't surprising since Arizona was originally part of Mexico. That's a lot of American citizens who look and sound like "immigrants", which makes profiling virtually impossible. Most people don't carry "proof of citizenship" in our wallets, so the probability of wrongful accusation is very high. And a high percentage of our law enforcement officers are hispanic themselves; already several police and sheriffs departments are refusing to participate in enforcing the law.
3) It's going to be an economic disaster from a variety of angles. Already, Arizona Faces Boycott Calls After Immigration Law, including from Arizona's largest trade partner: Mexico. The tourism industry is already suffering, and even the Major League Baseball Players Association calls for ‘repeal’ or prompt modification of Arizona law (the baseball all-star game is scheduled to be in Phoenix next year). And the Latino workforce is huge, and ranges from the stereotype laborer to the highest levels of professionals in Arizona; their dollars will have a major impact. For a state that is already in a budget crisis, it won't take long for the financial backlash to knock some sense into the legislature's head.
4) The law is destined to end the Republican's political control of Arizona. The state has been trending more "purple" in recent elections, but Republicans had held a small majority of hispanic voters. Retaining those votes would mean walking a fine line, and the GOP isn't walking this fine line very well. So, don't be surprised if there are wholesale changes come November.
I've said it before, but the simple fact remains that the only way to fix "illegal" immigration is to fix "legal" immigration. The process for getting a work visa (a "green card") has become so cumbersome as to be virtually impossible. But people are amazingly resourceful when it comes to survival of themselves and their families, so they will keep coming. The vast majority would rather do so legally; it's the system that fails them. This law does nothing to address the causes of the immigration problem, it only increases the level of racism. It wont work (although a lot of people will be hurt in the process).
Added: There is going to be a lot of ugliness before this law is repealed.

Now, a neo-Nazi group is trying to help Arizona crack down on illegal immigration, encouraging people to “Report An Illegal” on Cinco de Mayo:

The National Socialist Movement, which is considered by many to be a neo-nazi hate group, is passing out fliers to coincide with Cinco de Mayo. According to a flier received by ABC15 and the group’s website, the National Socialist Movement is calling May 5th, “Report An Illegal Day”.

The one-page flier calls on people to fax or email Congress and demand that the border be secured. It also wants people to ask local businesses to participate in e-verify and to turn in people to DHS and ICE. [...]

According to the group’s website, the National Socialist Movement wants each member to hand out 25-fliers.

The Boobie Shows Up

The Friday Boobie. Hopefully, I'll be putting up other posts soon.