Archive for March, 2009

Yah, according to Baseball Prospectus.

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

The Pirates opening in St. Louis is less than a week away. Gonna be there Tuesday and Wednesday for my annual going to some Pirates game thing. Might go to a game in Milwaukee on August 29th, might not. Depends on how good they are against the Brewers. Last year, they were terrible against them. 1-14. I hated watching them play the Brewers. Especially that game I went to and that one the night before. And those two in September ended by a Prince Fielder and a Ryan Braun walk off homers. Otherwise, I have no plans on going to Pittsburgh this year, they aren’t gonna be good, probably, so why bother? Plus I heard the economy sucks, so yeah, it’s probably a bad idea to spend money in this economy.

But there’s reason to be optimistic. The always interesting Kevin Goldstein over at Baseball Prospectus says this about the Pirates:

This team is going to be a dangerous one offensively in the next two or three years, and players like McCutchen are giving Pirates fans something they haven’t had for years—a glimmer of hope.

Whooo! It might happen soon for the Pirates. Now they just need better pitching. Hopefully Quinton Miller, Brad Lincoln and Bryan Morris can help with the starting pitching someday. They seriously need more pitching this draft. And more hitting.

This will activate your hilarity unit.

Monday, March 30th, 2009

First there’s a report on those cops in Missouri and all the trouble they cause. Great disclaimer at the end.

Then there’s James Bovard’s new article about Americorps and all the trouble they cause and tax payer money they waste.

Stupid Iowa State Income tax. I’ve finally made enough money to get in the black for next month. Lousy, free loading state. When’s the last time they did something for me?

There ya go…

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

The best reason I did not vote for Barack Obama and will not in 2012.

They need to stop wasting money on the drug war and legalize marijuana. Barack Obama has no interest in doing that, therefore I have no interest in voting for him.

Curt Schilling, HOF?

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

There is some debate now that Curt Schilling officially retired about whether or not he should be in the Hall of Fame. In my mind, there’s no doubt about it, he has 3,117 career strikeouts, which is #15 all time. He is #13 all time in strikeouts/9 innings. He has a career 1.137 WHIP, which is good enough for 45th all time. And he has an Adjusted ERA+ of 127, which is good enough to be tied at 47th all time. The guys just going by win total are being ridiculous. On bad teams, especially ones with awful bullpens, win totals can go down. He also had a few injuries that prevented him from increasing his win totals in the mid-90′s. He has HOF numbers and he certainly deserves to be in the Hall.

As for the infamous towel incident in 1993 World Series, can you blame him? That bullpen could not keep any lead safe. Not even a five or six run lead. Curt Schilling and Roger Mason were the only pitchers on that team to pull their weight for the Phillies. I would have thrown a towel over my head if I had to watch that kind of pitching….

What the fuck?

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

Pirates minor league player’s wife caught stealing a baby. This shit only ever happens to the Pirates. Player’s wife is 23 years older than him and she has a rap sheet that includes fraud.

Work is canceled because of rain.

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

I spent a big chunk of the afternoon dusting, vacuuming and cleaning everything. Anyways, I found this interesting thing about the Modern Militia movement and was thinking about it while cleaning.

A lot of it is stuff to watch out for when dealing with violent people. Basically it’s a list of militia related arrests and violence caused by them. Not a whole lot there. There’s more unsolved murders in New York and LA than the few things they found militias doing. They said the root cause of militia movements in the last 2 decades was “The 1992 standoff between federal authorities and the Weaver family at Ruby Ridge, Idaho” and “…a 51 day siege…at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas resulting in the deaths of 82 Davidians and four law enforcement agents.”

So basically the government inadvertently caused the militia movement they’re complaining about in the first place. Also I love this “This caught on in the 1980′s with injects such as Tom Clancy novels, Soldier of Fortune Magazine and movies such as Rambo that glorified combat.” HAHAHAHA. Blame Rambo and cheesy Tom Clancy books, I guess.

Anticipation of the economic collapse of the US Government: Many militia organizations feeel that the US government will fall due to economic or racial issues. They believe that during the chaotic fall of the government, moves will be made to install Martial Law, confiscate firearms and imprison many citizens. This fear has recently been heighten by a report from a Russian Economic analyst, Igor Panarin. Panarin predicted that the US would collapse and fraction into six dfferent regions controlled by foreign governments. Panarian goes on to say that as early as the autumn of 2009, the economic crisis will lead to a civil war.

So because some Russian dude says it, it must be true? Furthermore, if the US government collapses because of the economy (not fucking likely), how would they actually enforce martial law? How would they make mass arrest if the government collapse. Even if the the US is divided and controlled by foreign countries, how the hell would they do it?

North American Union (NAU): Conspiracy theorists claim that this union would link Canada, the United States and Mexico. The NAU would unify it’s monetary system and trade the dollar for the AMERO. Associated with this theory is concern over a NAFTA Superhighway, which would fast track trade between the three nations. There is additional concern that the NAU would open the border causing security risks and free movement for immigrants.

I love that stupid Superhighway complaint. As though it’ll be all that much worse if there’s a big highway from Canada to Mexico than it is now with lots of different highways from Canada to Mexico? I mean, Tomtom and Garmin makes it pretty easy to find your way around in this country, wouldn’t it be an easy trick to just drive between the two right now? I know there’s lots of people talking about this. They call up the free talk live guys a lot and complain about the Superhighway and the FTL guys just brush it off. I don’t think the majority of people talking about this are really a threat.

Universal Service Program: Statements made by President Elect Obama and his chief of staff have led extremists to fear the creation of a Civilian Defense Force. This theory requires all citizens between the age of 18 and 25 to be forced to attend three months of mandatory training.

Ok. I’ve heard that one before and honestly, it could be something to worry about. I mean, right on Obama’s campaign website it says “Obama and Biden will set a goal that all middle and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year”. Of course lazy government workers messed this up. It’s National Service Program, not Universal Service. Universal Service has to do with the FCC.

Christian Identity: Religious ideology popular in extreme right-wing circles. Aherents that whites of European descent can be traced back to the “Lost Tribes of Isreal.” Many consider Jews to be the satanic offspring of Eve and the Serpent, while non-whites are “mud people” created before Adam and Eve.

Wow. Where was this in Genesis? I never read about Eve and Snaky getting it on, maybe I have the wrong version of Genesis. Man, I wish I was Jewish now. I mean, I want to be descended from a snake. And is mud people just a derogatory way of saying evolution?

White Nationalist: Many white supremacists, National Socialists “Neo-Nazi”, and skinheads are drawn to the movement and it’s anti government, Semitic and anti-immigration rhetoric.

So a bunch of socialists are drawn to anti-government militias? That doesn’t even make the least bit of sense.

Sovereign Citizen: Individuals that see themselves as Sovereign Citizens question the legitimacy of the federal government. They argue that the government has gotten away from the intent of the Constitution and is thus not valid. These groups are strong states rights advocates, but see the County Sheriff as the highest position of authority. These groups and individuals are well known for failure to register vehicles and driving without valid licenses. Sovereign Citizens have been known to issue their own license plates and drivers licenses and to issue summons to appear in “Common Law” courts.

Wow. If they see the county sheriff as the highest position of authority, than what do police in Missouri really have to worry about? Just always bring along the county sheriff. Geez. Of course that’s probably a complete fabrication. Here’s the big danger. Not renewing your license or registering your car and making not phony licenses, but your own licenses that are clearly different than the governments. Clearly a huge public danger. I’m gonna make my own license plate and I’ll have mine say “FUCKOFF”.

Tax Resistors: This movement is strongly in opposition to the collection of federal income taxes. Individuals in this movement generally believe that income taxes are invalid or the tax laws do not apply to them.

I’m strongly opposed to the collection of federal income taxes. I think they suck and are a complete drain on the US economy. However, I know they apply to me. I’m not that awesome, I guess. If you cheat on your taxes, you can just get a job with the Obama administration anyways…

Public Groups: …It is not uncommon for these groups to be seen in public doing community service related work…

This is so broad almost anyone could be a militia member. So maybe we should start suspecting any groups who pick up trash at parks or help with flood relief…

Political Paraphernalia: Militia members most commonly associate with 3rd party political groups. It is not uncommon for militia members to display Constitution Party, Campaign for Liberty or Libertarian material. These members are usually supporters of former Presidential Candidate: Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr.

Ugh, shut the fuck up. I have determined through no research at all that assholes voted for one of the two major parties. The bigger assholes usually voted for the guy who won.

Anti-Government Propaganda: Militia members commonly display picture, cartoons, bumper stickers that contain anti-government rhetoric. Most of this material will depict the FRS, IRS, FBI, ATF, CIA, UN, Law Enforcement and “The New World Order” in a derogatory manor. Additionally, Racial, anti-immigration and anti-abortion, material may be displayed by militia members.

Guys with bumper stickers with funny cartoons and sayings are clearly a huge danger. Also, shows how lazy the people making this report were, again, “derogatory manor”? Are you sure it’s not “derogatory manner”? Lazy idiots. So are they admitting there is a “New World Order”? They seem almost offended by guys making fun of the NWO.

So yeah, some of it’s real stuff to be worried about, but most of it’s bullshit. I mean, it’s clearly just an attack on anti-government people and it would seem they’re more worried about ideas than guns and explosives.

Breaking News Polls.

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

Um, CNN has an interesting poll right now. “Should the government spend more money rescuing banks?” You can answer Yes or No. No is winning 80-20 with over 200,000 voters in the poll. I get this feeling people don’t want the government doing stuff, but politicians never listen to people….

How about this poll: “If you have $100,000 in your bank account and your bank is failing, would you want the government to bailout your bank out so that you don’t lose your money?” I wonder how that poll would be answered…. :-)

Also I love when people like Newt Gingrich talks about congress and he uses words like “they ram things through”. Hahahaha, ram. I’ve rammed lots of things, but none of them have ever gone through congress. Know what I mean? Say no more, say no more. Say No More!

Oh, I want to see Barack Obama take on the Special Olympics bowling team. I think that’d be pretty cool because if he’s as bad as he said he was on Leno, then he’d probably have his ass handed to him. I picked Northern Iowa to win the NCAA Tournament. I lose, of course. None of the teams I ever pick win. Someday I might pull off a Villanova. And Villanova is a major college in this country, why is it mis-spelled on my MacBook? And why is Obama still mis-spelled?

You are keeping two civilizations waiting….

Saturday, March 21st, 2009

Whooo! Final Episode of Battlestar Galactica was fucking awesome. The first hour is exciting and action packed. The second hour is cathartic and enjoyable. After five years, they finally let up a bit and just relax. And the best part about the second half is just spending time with the characters and not worrying about anything else.

As for Spoilers….umm…..

Ya know in case you don’t wanna have any idea of what happens

Because you might want to watch it later.

Or because you haven’t seen any of the episodes and want to watch the entire thing from the miniseries to the final episode, kinda like what I’ll do with Lost whenever it’s canceled.

Or maybe one day I’ll watch all the Firefly episodes.

Ok, I’m kidding. I’ve seen all of Firefly. There’s only about 15 episodes.

And a movie.

And I made up some stuff in my head about it, mostly me beating Jayne in arm wrestling.

Last night I had a dream where I was killed by a 400 pound Sumo Wrestler who sat on my head, while working in an office. He was probably a Cylon.

You know what’s funny, I have seen every episode of BSG, B5, Futurama and Firefly but still haven’t seen all the original Star Trek or Next Generation of Star Trek yet. I can’t imagine I ever will. I mean that’s a lot of episodes and nothing happens in those shows.

Spoiler-esque alert: You know what would have been a great ending? Have them find the real Earth and they get here and the only thing here are dinosaurs. So who wipes out the dinosaurs? The human race. hahahaha. But then, the years wouldn’t add up because humans didn’t come around until much, much later.

SPOILERS:

Starbuck: I Fucking Knew It. I mean, we all knew something was up with her that she wasn’t the same person. Turns out she wasn’t a person at all. An Angel? Oh, ok. She was probably the first human-cylon hybrid. Daughter of the Daniel Cylon we heard so much about a few episodes earlier. Her whole purpose in life was just to lead the human race to Earth based on a song that her father, a Cylon, wrote.

Letting the Centurions take off with the Basestar. Weird. Apparantly they never come back to Earth so I guess it’s ok. I like them wearing red stashes as to signify command levels. That’s fucking funny. I also liked them fighting along side people in the final battle. Very wrong. I don’t know if they’ll ever evolve to humanoid cylon. But I think they’ll just become more advanced. But if all they have is one basestar, what the fuck are they gonna do? Won’t eventually they’ll see and do everything and then, in the words of Bender, “Switch their on/off switch to off”?

So when the people and humanoid cylons land on Earth, we can assume that they inter-married and so they’re saying that the entire human race, as it exists today is part Cylon, part human. Very cool idea.

Finally, I was thinking in four seasons what haven’t we seen from Edward James Olmos? We’ve seen him shirtless. We’ve seen him shirtless and in bed with President Roslin. We’ve seen him with a mustache and without a mustache. We’ve seen him yell and get pissed off and assassinate Lt. Gaeta. We’ve seen him laugh and have a good time. But we haven’t seen him puke on himself. Thank you so very much, Ronald D. Moore. I’m so glad I was able to see that.

But all kidding aside, probably one of the greatest Series Finales ever. Should probably get a Hugo Award. Good ending. Glad it’s over, didn’t want to see it end a couple years too late. That happens too often. Good time to say that’s it and it’s all over with.

Nails it…

Friday, March 20th, 2009

Exactly. AIG was falling apart when they handed the money over. Why would anyone in congress expect them not to fuck around with the money just because the government handed it over. They couldn’t keep out of the red with the money they earned. So really it is congress’ fault for being so stupid and handing money over to other stupid people.

Money Fight!

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Barrack Obama submitted his first budget recently. The total was $3.6 trillion for Fiscal Year 2010. Amazing, huh? In less than two months in office, the Federal Budget jumped $500 billion. To put that in perspective. Bill Clinton entered office and the 1993 Federal Budget submitted by Bush I was $1.41 trillion. His final budget for Fiscal Year 2001 was $1.863 trillion. Meaning that in 8 years as president, he increased the Federal Budget by $453 billion. He couldn’t do in 8 years what Obama has done in 2 months. Then you look at Bush II, it took about 4 years as president before he increased the Federal Budget by $500 billion. Then he increased it by $700 billion his last four years. Yeah, the Bush Republicans really hated the government….