If the baseball season ended today, the Red Sox would not make the playoffs. Darn it.

Luckily, the baseball season does not end today. But the Sox need to turn things around, and fairly quickly.

My dad thinks that Davis is toast, but that his lieutenant governor, Cruz Bustamante, will win a narrow victory over Ahh-nold in the California recall election. I’m not prepared to make a prediction yet, but I am prepared to pose a highly speculative question, loaded with multiple hypotheticals, about Bustamante’s political future. :) Here goes:

If Bustamente wins, and if he actually does a good job of righting California’s ship (that’s the biggest if), and if President Bush is re-elected in 2004, and if Governor Bustamente is re-elected in 2006, doesn’t he — the successful, two-term Latino governor of the largest state in the nation — become a, perhaps the, front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008?

(more…)

I’m not exactly a biblical scholar, so maybe someone can help answer this question for me: is there any chance the second coming of Christ would involve a resurrected dog?

In furtherance of its never-ending defense of democracy, the free market, and the unfettered exchange of ideas, Fox is suing Al Franken for trademark infringement because he used the Fox News Channel’s slogan “fair and balanced” in the title of his book. (Perhaps Franken can countersue Fox News for false advertising?)

Franken’s book is called “Lies And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.” Take a moment to fully absorb that title, and then consider Fox’s claim that Franken intends to “confuse the public as to the origins of the book.” In a word: What?!?

Whatever the suit’s overall legal merits, this claim of “confusion” is obviously preposterous on its face. No one is going to buy this book thinking it’s endorsed by Fox News — it’s a scathing criticism of Fox News and the conservatism it represents, for heaven’s sake, and that is extremely obvious from the title. In this case, you can judge a book by its cover.

Whether or not Fox has an actionable claim, as a matter of corporate policy it should not have sued Franken. The company is just being petty here by trying to make trouble for one of its critics, and in the process, it is further suggesting to the public that Fox News and its employees don’t take criticism well. Previously, Bill O’Reilly threw a veritable hissy-fit at an event with Franken, calling him an “idiot” and “vicious” and “blinded by ideology.” (Neither the pot nor the kettle could be reached for comment.)

UPDATE: Blogger and law professor Eugene Volokh says:

This strikes me as an extremely weak case. … I find it extremely unlikely that readers would indeed be confused by the use of “Fair and Balanced” here. Moreover, it seems to me like a really silly move on Fox’s part, since it looks like a heavy-handed and legally ill-founded attempt to suppress criticism.

InstaPundit’s Glenn Reynolds is also unimpressed with Fox’s claims.

Faith Fippinger, an American woman who illegally visited Iraq in order to bolster Saddam Hussein’s military strategy by serving as a “human shield,” has been fined $10,000 — and she says she’s not going to pay. “I will not contribute money to the United States government to continue the build-up of its arsenal of weapons,” she says, and suggests the government imprison her instead.

I suggest the government follow her advice. Look, this woman is lucky she isn’t being tried for treason (which carries the death penalty). Lest we forget, a key component of Saddam’s strategy was to make it impossible for America to avoid killing innocents by placing “human shields” all over the place, thus driving up the civilian death toll and sharpening world opinion against the war. That was his military strategy, and “human shields” like Ms. Fippinger were knowingly and deliberately taking actions that would strengthen that strategy. They were aiding and abetting America’s enemy during a time of open military conflict. It doesn’t get much more treasonous than that.

Domestic street protests are one thing — they are expressions of our uniquely American right to free speech and dissent, and as such, are just as patriotic as flag-waving — but travelling to the enemy’s territory and aiding his military strategy is going far beyond the boundaries of legitimate protest.

No blood for oil? How about, no leniency for traitors?

UPDATE: Wow! The Constitution of the United States itself has commented on my blog! :)

But with all due respect, uh, Mr. Constitution, I stand by my points above. I believe the text of… er, you… could potentially support an argument that Ms. Fippinger committed treason, in the sense that she gave “Aid and Comfort…in adhering to [the United States’] Enemies.” I’m not saying it’s a slam-dunk case, but it’s a case that could certainly, at the very least, be attempted with a straight face.

However, that’s just my reading of, um, you. I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one.

“I will be back,” Liberian ex-president Charles Taylor declared in his resignation speech.

“Hasta la vista, Charlie,” the U.S. Marines responded.

Fifteen days until the Two Towers DVD comes out… and with it, reportedly, a 10-minute preview of Return of the King!!!

Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy… :)

Meanwhile, the Oscar talk for ROTK is already beginning. Well, yeah. Ever since the Fellowship of the Ring lost to A Beautiful Mind, I’ve been predicting that the Oscar committee would wait until the Return of the King and then give a best-picture Oscar to, in essence, the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy. And it will be richly deserved. Sorry, Seabiscuit, but this is Shadowfax’s year.

Today is the 23rd (I think that’s right) birthday of my freshman-year college roommate, Dave Kreutz. (Well, really it’s David Kreutz. I’m one of the few people on earth who calls him Dave. I got into the habit early, and he never managed to break me of it. :)

Dave transferred from USC to the University of Washington after freshman year — no, I didn’t scare him away, dammit! — but we’ve stayed intermittently in touch, we saw each other again during Becky’s and my road trip through Seattle in August 2002 and again when Dave visited USC twice last school year, and each of us have promised the other a spot as a groomsman at our respective weddings.

Anyway, here’s a pair of pictures:

Me and Dave in our Trojan Hall dorm room, with our dueling red hooded sweatshirts, in 2000.


Dave, me, and Becky in Seattle in August 2002.

So anyway… Happy Birthday, Dave!

Oh, and if it’s Dave’s birthday, that means it’s also the fourth anniversary of the 1999 total solar eclipse. I didn’t know Dave then (I would meet him about two weeks later), but as soon as I found out the date of his birthday, I immediately connected it in my mind with the eclipse, which had been one of the more memorable events of my summer.

Why? Because Jen and I got up at something like 2:00 in the morning that day, and drove (well, she drove; I wouldn’t get my license for eight more days) all the way from Newington to Point Judith, Rhode Island (about a two-hour drive) in the faint hope of seeing a partial eclipse at sunrise — totality came and went before local sunrise — despite a forecast calling for mostly cloudy skies.

In the foreground is Jen’s and my eclipse survival kit — my camcorder, several stuffed animals, Jen’s Mountain Dew, my orange juice, and some Hostess cup cakes — while in the background is Jen, sitting on her car, waiting in vain for anything of interest to appear in the early-morning sky.

In the end, we saw nothing whatsoever except a totally overcast sky — though I swear the predawn sky lit up in an unusual way, starting slow and then accelerating, which I attribute to the movement of the moon’s shadow while the sun was still beyond the horizon — and thus the August 11, 1999 eclipse became known, in Brendan and Jen’s world, as the “Cloudy Eclipse.” :)

The most dramatic moment of our morning actually came some time later, when Jen had to briefly pull off the highway because of an intense rain shower in New London. Yeah, she was thrilled about that. :) Anyway, the whole thing was quite an experience, and it ended up being a defining moment in Jen’s an my friendship, and a subject of much reminiscing ever since.

In some places around the world, the Cloudy Eclipse of 1999 could be seen perfectly well. Here’s an animated GIF of the eclipse’s progression from Mr. Eclipse:

At the Yiddishfest 2003 street fair Sunday, as Folksbiene Yiddish Theater actress Joanne Borts was on stage extoling the virtues of teaching your children Yiddish, I overheard a young person — roughly my age or perhaps a little younger — asking as he walked past, “What the hell is Yiddish?”

This morning I bought my first weekly MetroCard — i.e., a pass that lets you ride the subway (or bus) as many times as you want for a month, at a fixed rate — instead of paying per ride. Little did I know that I’m part of a trend.

It makes sense, though. The same math that applies in my case would also apply in the cases of many other working New Yorkers: if you have to commute to work once a day, and go back home once a day, five times a week, that’s ten rides each week at $2 each — a total of $20 for the five-day workweek. The 7-day unlimited-ride MetroCard costs $21 — so all it takes is one additional subway ride per week, and the 7-day pass is worth it!

Imagine how much of a workaholic hermit you’d have to be for that not to be a good deal! Hell, you’d have to be one of those Internet weirdos who goes straight home from work and immediately starts updating his blog…

Hey, wait a minute… :)

But no, I went to Central Park today after work, which was very nice (until it started raining). Tomorrow I may head over to Broadway to see the lights dim in honor of Gregory Hines at 8:00 PM.

But, uh, I probably won’t be riding the Staten Island Ferry, at least not during rush hour, anytime soon. I’m all for “not letting the terrorists win,” but sometimes you have to let common sense win, too. I mean, I’ll ride it if I need to ride it — doing otherwise would be letting the terrorists win — but I ain’t riding it just for fun (like I have a couple of times recently).

I’m thrilled to learn that the Tribute in Light, that beautiful light-beam memorial to the Twin Towers, will return to the New York skyline next month for the September 11 anniversary observances. I missed the first Tribute in Light, during the spring of 2002, because I was in Los Angeles. Now, apparently, it will become an annual staple of 9/11 memorial ceremonies, which I think is a wonderful idea.

Here are a few miscellaneous pictures from my first week as a young professional in New York City. I’ll show them roughly in reverse chronological order, in keeping with blogging tradition.

Today, Jen and Sara (from Newington, duh) came down to the city, having been invited by my mom to attend Yiddishfest with us and then come to a post-Yiddishfest party (a.k.a. a “nosh,” though I have no idea if I spelled that right) at the apartment.

Anyway, toward the end of their visit, Jen got a hold of the camera, and all hell broke loose. :)

Here’s me in front of my bulletin board.


Here’s Sara in front of one of my mom’s prints and some of her art equipment.

Eventually I got the camera back and, after many objections that I was trying to steal her soul, finally got the camera-shy Jen to agree to be photographed with Sara. :)

Now then, here’s a picture from Friday, showing the Daily News jumbotron on 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. The computer controlling its content has apparently crashed. Heh.

Here’s another picture from Friday, showing some of the balloons that my boss Lyn and her husband Richard put up in their apartment (which is also our office) for the birthday party of one of their daughters:

While we’re on the topic of the office, here’s a picture of the view from the room where I work, which, as I pointed out on Thursday, must have had a fantastic view of the World Trade Center before 9/11. That black building near the lower left-hand corner is the soon-to-be-demolished Deustche Bank building at the edge of Ground Zero.

Moving further backwards in time, here are the two big city tabloids on Thursday morning, with their Arnold coverage:

And here’s a cuuuute little girl (with her baby doll) who I sat next to on the subway on Wednedsay:

Going back all the way to Monday now, here is a somewhat eerie sight: on a phone booth in the Brooklyn neighborhood where I went to tour a for-rent apartment, it’s a campaign sign for Councilman James Davis, who was assassinated in City Hall on July 23. Apparently the sign, which urges voters to choose the incumbent Davis in the September primary, simply hasn’t been taken down yet.

Finally, here are two pictures that should give you a small taste of what the weather has been like all damn week in the city. They are both from Monday.

A huge puddle on Canal Street after a morning downpour.


The view from the office during the torrential rainstorm shown on radar here.

My blog-children are battling it out: Toby’s blog (soon to become a three-cat blog) and the SHA girls blog have 34 entries apiece at the moment, while Mom & Dad’s blog — boosted by the recent surge in Gnostic Watch entries — is closing in fast with 33. (Jen’s blog is presently trailing far behind with 8.)

But, ladies and gentlemen, this is not a competition; this is only an exhibition. Please, as always, no wagering.

:)

Today was the hottest August day in Phoenix history, with the high temperature reaching 116 degrees, according to The Weather Channel. I hope Becky’s air conditioner is working well.

As weather records go, though, Phoenix’s day was nothing compared to London’s, where the temperature of 100 degrees was the highest ever recorded in the U.K.

All right, so it took me a while to post this. But here, at last, are my Top 10 favorite memories from Becky’s, Toby’s and my Buffalo-to-Phoenix road trip:

Honorable Mention: Seeing a dust devil in Utah.

10. Finally getting a picture of the Bob Dole/Arlen Specter sign in Russell, Kansas, that we missed in 2001

9. Prairie Dog Town (also featuring pigs, extra-legged cows, and more), Oakley, Kansas

8. Beautiful roadside scenery, western Colorado

7. Monument Rocks, Oakley, Kansas

6. Thunderstorm in Monticello, Utah

5. Monarch Scenic Tramway ski lift and vista, Monarch, Colorado

4. Toby’s lizard-chasing and other cute antics

3. World’s highest suspension bridge (Royal Gorge, Colorado) during giant thunderstorm

2. The Colorado River basin and Arches National Park, Utah

1. The impossibly red rocks and gorgeous scenery of south-central Utah

Click here for the full photo gallery!