Here it comes.

This is why I was ambivalent of Harriet Miers. Alito is the type of appointment that everyone was terrified Bush would come forward with. This, however, shows that the Demcratic "popcorn strategy" (i.e., sitting back and letting the republicans fight over Miers) may have paid off. Also, it may indicate that the fillibuster compromise was worth it. The Dems may, just yet, block this guy.

But I'm not so sure. His dissent in Planned Parentood v. Casey alone will be enough to get the entire Christian right wing in 100% fired up mode, much more so than they even were about Roberts. Expect endless talk regarding how well-qualified Alito is, and how his experience shows that he is ready to take this task. Also expect endless accusations that the democrats are being obstructionist and pointlessly aggressive on the matter. They will blame the Miers non-appointment on the Dems (hence the talk about the fucking executive privilege bullshit).

I don't buy this smokescreen for one instant. This is about abortion, and will be about abortion only. And if Alito is confirmed, Roe v. Wade is dead. Maybe not immediately, but the Roberts court will chop away at it, gradually, until it is essentially gone.

There is room for strategy in this--I don't really want committee dems getting all agressive on Alito until the hearings. I want the guy to get a fair hearing, and it to be clear that he gets a fair hearing. They should cite their behavior during the Roberts and Miers appts. to support this--they carefully considered both candidates, and Russ Feingold even voted to send Roberts out of committee. But the fucker should be opposed fully when the time comes, up to and including a full fillibuster of his nomination. Everything they've done so far has been to get them in position to oppose this nomination.

Do it.

UPDATE: Fuck. This is looking less and less good. Graham holding probably isn't that big a deal, but if the other 6 republicans give up, and there are no longer 51 pro-filibuster votes... This is scary as hell.

Compromising nat'l security = not fun

Hunter beat me to it. Go read that essay. I've been thinking similar thoughts for a while, but I'm a much poorer writer.

All this 'fitzmas' crap has been pissing me off for a while. It's vindictive and bitter, and not really becoming to anyone to show such glee. At the minimum, we're talking about someone having their career ruined. But beyond that, we're having a career in national security ruined. It goes beyond Karl Rove and Scooter Libby, and the whole thing is a grim, bitter harvest.

It is not a fucking holiday. Rot in jail, Scooter, but I'm not going to pretend that it is a fucking gift that I was given. It's what had to be done.

Domestic Violence

Well, it's becoming increasingly evident that violence in our culture starts at home--people who grow up in violent households are disproportionately those who commit violence whilst out in the world. Even when considered independently of the obvious and horrific suffering that the victims of domestic violence must suffer on a daily basis, the continuing presence of hosehold abuse is a malaise on our society.

Yet we do nothing. And yet few even discuss the issue. Everyone would just prefer to let it go away.

So, anyway, I have a somewhat drastic proposal to attempt to adress the problem. In most states, in order to get married, a couple needs to get a blood test and a liscence, at the minimum. Why not require a domestic violence screening? Why not require the couple to sit down with a case worker or a judge or someone, together and seperately, and see if there are any warning signs present, and to inform the couple about what their options are, with respect to contacting the police, shelter infrastructure, and the like? It would require very little of the government, and there would at least be the potential of helping some people out.

I realize that this would hardly be a panacea--it wouldn't do anything to help the unmarried victims of abuse, and it wouldn't do much to help those who bait and switch in their relationships. Fucked up systems of manipulation are hard to break, and limited counseling would probably not empower many people. But we need to do something. An idea like this would be a start.

Why I hate House Republicans Vol XXIX

Holy god. It isn't like I already didn't hate the goddamn patriot act already, but then they go and add this shit to it:

Under the proposals, 41 crimes would be added to the 20 terrorism-related offenses now eligible for the federal death penalty. Prosecutors would also find it easier to impose a death sentence in cases in which the defendant did not have the intent to kill.

In one example cited by Human Rights Watch, "an individual could be sentenced to death for providing financial support to an organization whose members caused the death of another, even if this individual did not know or in any way intend that the members engage in acts of violence."

So, in six months, you might potentially be eligible for the death penalty for giving moeny to your moron sibling, who, unbeknownst to you, turns out to be a terrorist. Or a drug dealer, or anything illegal that the administration doesn't like, as they already have used anti-terror laws to prosecute non-terror criminals.

Also, the provisions reduce the number of jurors required to get a federal death penalty conviction, with the provision that "the court finds a 'good cause', with or without the agreement of the defense." What the fuck would a "good cause" to fuck around with the goddamn jury system be? Why would someone write a provision like that?

And finally, this new system allows for the federal prosecutor to reconvene a jury if the sentencing jury dadlocks over the issue of executing the prisioner, mirroring the 5 most aggressive states laws on the death penalty, and in contrast to the 38 other death penalty states where a deadlocked jury results in an automatic life sentence.

The Washington Post article refers to these provisions passing the House by voice vote, which probably means that the floor was none too full when the vote was taken, though there is no mention of when this took place. None of this shit is in the Senate version, and here's to hoping that it gets taken out in conference.

So, in summary, I hate you, house republicans.

More advice to Madison Ave.

We all know that "the generation that made a difference" ended up selling out. a lot. Targeting a bunch of materialistic shit at them, particulary shit that has a natural connexion to their hippie roots is cool.

What is not, however, is pretending that your goddamn financial planning company is directly linked to the free love/political expression of the 60s. It basically insults everyone involved. I'm pretty sure that Abie Hoffman wasn't the prime spokesman for turning money into more money via investment.

Just sayin'

school funding

I hate the way we fund schools. All the debate we have regarding public schools ends up being completely disingenuous, because this very issue is always completely off of the table from day one. Instead, we talk about "poor schools" and "rich schools" and wonder how we can possibly survive in a world where such a divide exists.

Instead, we should be asking ourselves: Why are we using local property taxes to fund our school system anyway? There is no real good reason for it, and all it does is create some areas where the local government is able to collect large amounts of taxes, and others, where the local authorities can collect virtually none.

We can do better, I say. Our current system spends as much, if not more per capita, and produces poorer results. The central reason comes down to these issues of local dominance and vast funding disparity. If we stopped duplicating efforts between districts, and we stopped starving some schools, while lavishing others, then everyone would be better off.

But then again, that's just my opinion

A note to James Edmonds

I remember how you hit that awesome home run two years ago.

I also remember how you spent all of this year attempting to recreate that magical moment.

In the future, I'd like to humbly request that you attempt to minimize this behavior, and do what you can with them, rather than trying to crank them.

Additionally, I have to say that this is one of the best post-disaster links that I've seen. Read it if you're still feeling down (I sure am).

If you haven't done so already (something which I find shocking, if you've made it to this corner of the internet), go on down to lboros's place and discuss all sorts of fun stuff. Let the Brian Giles/Reds outfielder/new pitcher sweepstakes begin!

The cards are dead

Long live the cards.

Any Astros fans here, congragulations. I hope you crush the White Sox.

Myself, I'll be remembering lazy August nights heading up highway 61 with Jack buck and Mike Shannon, sitting up in the terrace lodge at Busch, and the one night where believing in a magical 9th inning comeback wasnt emotionally crushing.

That being said, they are not in all that bad a situation this offseason.

If I were Jocketty (thank god I'm not), I'd make the following moves:

Give Anthony Reyes a chance at the rotation
re sign Sanders
re sign Suppan
go get Brian Giles
and maybe go get a relible reliever.

Rolen will be back. Al Reyes will be back around the All-Star break. Mulder will have another year to justify the loss of Danny haren and daric barton. Pujols will be Pujols. They can get back to where they were a week ago. It'll just be in some new place in a city that is ever so gradually becoming some place different from the town where I grew up.

Game 5: Cardinals 5, Astros 4

I can't believe how exciting this was. Every second of this day was tense and exasperating and terrifying and magical. I got into Houston at 3:00 and met up with my friends, and had lunch. We got to the juice box around 5:15. The security guards saw my Pujols jersey and my friend's custom jersey w/ birds on bat, and jabbed us a little bit at the gate, but everyone was quite friendly. At least at first.

We made our way down to the good seats by the dugouts to watch bp and warmups. Friendly staidium worker. Some trash talk, but apparently he was working right next to Bill DeWitt the previous night. At this point, the stadium was about 50/50 cards/astros fans, including some girls wearing homemade "go crazy, folks" shirts. We Weinberg gave us a thumbs up about how the guys were feeling. Eck warmed up next to Larry Walker. He looked very small. Reggie hit the shit out of a bunch of bp balls, and then, on the way to the dugout, he saw me and my friend in our cards jerseys, gave us a big smile and threw out a ball to my friend. Right before the team went into the dugout for the start of the game, Tony la Russa did the same to me (well, minus the smile).

I did a lap around the stadium, wanting to check it out a bit and also, hopefully avoid the massive line to the upper deck (turns out there's only one way to the upper deck.), as it was my turn up there--there were four of us, me, my other cardinals fan friend, and two neutral guys who we knew from school. It was my turn with the upper deck seats first. So, up I went, and sat and watched the first bit of the game. I felt every damn pitch that Carp threw up there. The guy sitting next to me was reading his high school lit stuff, though. Often during innings. Odd. His dad was watching, though. Pettitte drove me crazy with his nonstop throwing to first. Though I guess it did eventually work out for him. Some dude in front of me stood up right before grudzie's rbi single. But we all saw the looming pitch count up on Carp.

Several innings pass, and the game starts getting very, very tense. Reggie makes a big catch out in left, and my bosox fan friend calls me to switch down to the good seats, the ones about 6 rows in foul territory by the LF porch. So down I go, me and my cardfan friend sitting in this sea of clemens jerseys. Immediately, I notice an interesting crowd surrounding us. to my left are two friendly guys who kinda rib us a little, but are more just watching. They didn't quite know what to do when they turned around to hi-5 me after a Biggio single, and see the birds on bat. It was a cute moment. To our right is an old, serious Astros fan, who really knows and loves baseball. He spent these middle innings just chatting with us.

Then behind us, is a goddamn CFB and her boyfriend. Both of them are completely drunk. She is screaming about how she wants to sleep with the various Astros at bat, and he is busy screaming at us "You guys are DONE" in the midst of a 2-1 cardinals lead. The crowd at Minute Maid is still asleep, and we are completely tied to the edge of our seats, as both pitchers dribble runners off and on. Then comes Carp's 6th inning, one of the most spectacular things I have seen out at the game. After not really having his full powered fastball (or maybe the juicebox has a slow gun), throwing in the 92-93 range most of the night, he pulls back and powers out the side with 96 mph heaters and a nasty nasty 12-6 curveball. Astros go in order. I say to my friend, with Pettitte at 100 pitches and the top of our order up, this is the time that we need to make things count. Unfortunately, they don't, encouraging the home crowd. During the stretch, they run the kiss cam, and GHWB and Barbara come up, resulting in a lame "fuck you bastards, get this thing off of me" kiss.

Then, out comes Carp for the 7th, against the pinch hitter for Pettitte, Orlando Palmiero. He grounds up, but this is simply the preview for the two out jam that comes up, with Berkman at bat. At this point, Carp is at 110 or so pitches, and I am shocked that he stays in. But he does. The crowd gets on their feet collectively, and begins really yelling. Berkman hits his bloop HR. Crowd fucking explodes. CFB and drunk guy dance around, absolutely covering us in beer. We have some words with them, but things calm down quickly. I heard shannon's call of 7th, 8th and 9th, and broadcast does absolutely no justice to how loud this was. Couldn't hear anything--just a loud overall din of the crowd. Carp stays on. He somehow manages to keep his composure and his stuff enough to get two outs and escape the inning. The blood has left my face, and all I can do is just clench my fist. The drunk lovers begin to talk about nothing but Lidge, Lidge, Lidge.

Out comes the LOOGY to get Walker. Chad Qualls sends the next two down. Crowd gets progressively louder. Friendly joke guys give a pat on the back. Is appreciated. But the same time, I start screaming that it's not over yet, and am enheartened to see TLR send out Izzy to start the 8th. Izzy pitches like a hero. He forgets all about the pointless drama, he just gets his outs, despite how they battle. Crowd doesn't care, drunk dude shouts out "It doesn't matter, this is over."

Lidge comes out to start the 9th. Crowd goes absolutely apeshit. Moreso than they did for the Berkman HR. Jumbotron leads the crowd into a chant of BEE-LIEVE. Which I find completely rediculous. Your team has a goddamn 3-1 series lead, and a 4-2 game lead, in the 9th inning, with the best closer in the game on the mound. If you don't believe, I'd call you a fairweather fan, but that's an insult to fairweather fans. Strike one on Johnny Rod. Screams--two, three. I can't hear anything. Mabry strikes out, same thing. 9th inning, two out, Lidge on the mound. Eck comes up. My friend says, "this is the time for magic to happen." I say, "this is the guy to bring it about." Mighty mouse takes strike one, crowd gets yet louder. Astros fans are covering their ears now. Only rock concerts compare at this point. My knuckles are white. Ball, boos. Strike two, more cheering. Then, Eckstein hits a dribbler to the left infield, the 3b tries, misses, the ss tries, misses, base hit. CFB is passed out, drunk guy reiterates how it doesn't matter. Lidge throws a strike on Jimmy E. cheers. Lidge buzzes one inside on Jim. Drunk guy -- "that's right! plunk him! plunk him! plunk him!" In response, smart old astros fan -- "do you know who's on base? We don't want Pujols hitting again" drunk guy -- "it doesn't matter! Plunk him!" friendly guy -- "we aren't all like that, you know" me -- "I know, I really like most astros fans" (and I do). Jed walks. Crowd starts to get confused, but remembers to cheer again on the Pujols swing and miss. Me and my cardfan friend are absolutely silent--tense as all hell. Ball one, and then...

The crowd absolutely fucking dies, everyone waiting to see what happens. The second it leaves the infield, there is no doubt. I didn't even see it hit the back wall. I just watched the Cards circle the bases, me and my friend the only ones still standing, cheerign and shouting. We then start chanting MVP MVP MVP as loud as we can. I think Albert even looked over at us as he rounded 3B. We sat down. Reggie is retired. Cards up 5-4.

Drunk guy now recovers, and starts screaming at us. In particular, he seems focused on the phrase "where's Izzy now?" "who's gonna hold this up?". After I hear "Where's Izzy now?" for the 200th time, I reply "On the fucking mound, moron." And there is #44. Also, I remember seeing that #7 is not out at 3B and scream in elation, "Mabry's at third! Mabry's at third!" My friend and I look at each other, and he says, "Izzy, if you spare us the pointless drama just this once, I take back everything I've ever said about you." And with two up and two down, and a one run lead to protect, up comes Chris Burke. Crowd gets into it again. Izzy gets to what I think was a 1-2 count, and popup gets thrown in the air, hard play, but So is over. And that is a winner. The fans, in just 20 minutes, moved from counting down strikes to the world series, dancing and holding up signs about Chicago to dejectedly staggering out of the stadium with chins against their necks. Absolutely amazing.

Drunk guy reminds us that we have only beaten Pettite, despite our constant reminder that Lidge took the loss. Then we wished the best to the good fans, as vocally excluding the bastards as possible, and sit in the stands waiting for the staidum to clear out. We take pictures near the field, and of the scoreboard, showing

WP - Isringhausen (1 - 0)

LP - Lidge (0-1)

which we thought was very hilarious. Stadium clears out, we walk down to the bus station, I call everyone that I know. We see my freinds sweet office down at Rice University (he's faculty now), and I drive home, listening to the radio coverage of the game. The coolest thing was hearing a guy from the MO nat'l guard, stationed in New Orleans call up and talk about the game. They replayed Shannon's call of the last part of the game, and I didn't even come down enough to get tired until 3:00 AM, despite having gotten up at 5:00 that morning. Of course, now I can't wash my beer stained Pujols jersey.

I'll have photos up as soon as I have them emailed to me.

UPDATE: edited for readability somewhat. Some minor addiotns.

I. Was. Fucking. There.

I am back now. That was the most incredible fucking thing that I ever saw. I got a bp ball. Albert and Eck are my herores. Both home runs essentially sailed over my head.

Izzy, I take back anything bad that I ever said about you.

Much more to follow after I get some sleep. Don't worry, my grandchildren will get an identical version 50 years from now.

In the tradition of bellyscratcher...

Albert won't back down
he will stand his ground
In a world that keeps on grounding others out,
he will stand his ground

Jimmy knows what's right
and he just won't fight
and he'll keep that ump from throwing him out
he will stand his ground
and he won't back down

Hey baby
they've blown the easy way out
hey yeah
they will earn their outs
and they'll work the count

Big Chris won't back down
he will take the mound
and he'll strike all of those motherfuckers out
and he will stand his ground
and he won't back down

Davey Eckstein won't go down
he'll hustle across the town
and he'll show us why i call him mighty mouse
and he'll help us out

Hey baby
Brad Ausmus is an easy out
hey yeah
let's take this back to the home town
and we won't back down

Go Cards! Beat the shit out of fucking Pettitte. I will not post till late tonight.

apologies to Tom Petty, and the hearbreakers, too

It's not fucking over yet!

Read this

This is all. Go Carpenter! Time to show that you're the best pitcher in the majors.

You can never stop the big tears

That was a depressing game. There were the mandatory insane tony roster moves, there was the timely Astros hitting, the non-timely cardinals hitting, and the unfortunate injury. In the end, the damn Hector Luna error probably ended up costing the game. let me reiterate from the Viva El Birdos game thread: "Damn you, Hector Luna!!"

Furthermore, I have decided that FOX has managed to have worse announcers than ESPN's Joe Morgan-led crew. A proud and difficult accomplishment. My hat is tipped to you, Rupert Murdoch.


I have little positive to say, but let's try.

So really battled every single at bat he had. He didn't really come up big, but I felt like he was in on every at bat he had. And he played well and aggressively in the outfield. I wouldn't mind him getting a game 4 start, at all.

Tavarez, though being obnoxious while doing it, did get his three out without allowing a run. Marquis is well rested. Pujols got himself a hit, and Walker got himself an RBI, finally. We finally got a run off of goddamn Brad Lidge. Matt Morris pitched well. If a couple of those cardinals flyouts had gone 5 feet further, they would have been home runs, and it would have been a quite different game.

One thing remains to be said:

Dear Cardinals,

beat the living fucking snot out of Brandon Backe tomorrow.

That is all.

Don't have ;much to say

other than Molina was good, the infield defense was atrocious, Burke was out at third, Mulder pitched a decent, but not spectacular game, and one question:

Why, why, did Tavarez pitch the 8th?

What Izz He?

I have now officially grown completely immune to Izzy's late inning non-heroics. The pointless drama just bounces off of me, because, I have a sense of assurance that he will get the job done. It kind of makes me sad, 'cause I know it's a sense of false confidence. Just to amuse myself:

Izzy, bases empty

OBA .268 SLGA .315, OPS allowed .583

Izzy, runner on 1st

OBA .293 SLGA .350 OPS allowed .643

Izzy, RISP

OBA .356 SLG .163 OPS allowed .519

Izzy, bases loaded

OBA .182 SLG .100 OPS allowed .282!!!!

This pretty much confirms what we all know--Izzy is lazy in situations where he can afford to be, but when he gets himself in a jam, he turns into the fucking hammer of God, or something. I had no idea just how rediculous the stats would turn out, however. In particular, those disgustingly low slugging percentages in the RISP situations are amazing. This also makes me feel a lot better about the Isringhausen pointless drama. I actually felt bad for the Houston fans I watched the game with, as they got excited during Izzy's late inning heroics.

But then I remembed the psychotic durnk girl that yelled "you suck" at Jimmy when he dropped Berkman's pop fly in the 1st. First, 99 times out of 100, Jed gets that thing. Second, someone cheering for a team starting Willy fucking Tavares has no room to tell anyone elses' CF that they suck.

But other than the group of drunk college kids out at the bar (they didn't really watch the game, anyway, they sat and chatted at each other, and then pretended to notice whenever the Astros got a hit), it was a pretty good day out in enemy territory. I sat next to a group of old Astros fans (guys who remembered the old Colt 45's), and we talked some baseball. One of the guys with me told me about the first game he saw at the Astrodome, where the Cards beat the Astros 1-0, off of a homerun, hit by one Bob Gibson. We compared stories of misery about having the Astrodome/Busch stadium being retired. We both thought that it was a shame that Busch is going by the wayside. They were knowledgable fans, and wouldn't let one guy get away with trying to argue that Pujols and Berkman were interchangable.

The only downfall was that game watching got harder when word got out that I am a physicist, and things degenerated somewhat into talk about the mysteries of the universe. It was fun to talk about, though, and I guess, evidence that science isn't as boring as it's made out to be. Some funny moments occurred when people from the other side of the room heard me cheering (the big double play being a key example of this). They would pass and ask me "You aren't really a cardinals fan, are you" (me, wearing a Pujols jersey)? Or, "were you born in St. Louis?" After I responded yes to this woman, then she was "Ok, I guess I understand--that's the only way I was going to let you off the hook."

As far as the game, it was a good time. I had a psychic moment, as I said "Reggie muders Pettitte", and two pitches later, the ball was deposited in the stands. I liked seeing Mighty Mouse Eck(doesn't he look like a mouse?) have a good game.

Above all else, however, I loved Carp's performance tonight. This is what champion ace pitchers do. He didn't have his best curve today, and seemned to have issues with his command. So, he just started beating the plate with his fastball, mixed it up when he needed to, and was effective. At times, he seemed on the brink of letting the game get out of hands, but then, he just hunkered down, threw his pitches, and did what he had to do. All the while, he didn't do it with the stony, empty face that you see on most premier power pitchers. Instead, his face was a very human flush of emotion. You could see the pressure on him to come out ahead in this game, and you could see his determination to not let his team, and the Cardinal Nation down tonight. Every hit hurt, and every strikeout was ectascy. He is my favorite Cardinal, and I hope he finishes his career with StL. I will relish every start he makes until then.

On to game 2! Let's go to Houston with two wins!

That was a fun game

A few obserations:

1) I can't believe how long larry Walker stayed in that game. When he took that ball to the knee, I was screaming for So Taguchi to be pinch running for him. When he did a backflip over the wall, these efforts redoubled. Unfortunately, although I am a loudmouth, my voice can't quite carry from the middle of the country to San Diego. Ah well.

2) I'm getting slightly less worried about the 'pen. For the second straight game, Izzy kept the pointless drama to a minimum. Tavarez and Thompson coughed up runs, but kept on truckin' so I guess that's fine

3)Matt's curveball is found! I was also impressed with how he was able to shake off those 5th inning jitters and stay effective.

4) I love how this offense works--someone makes it go, whether or not it is the same dude every day. It's a lot more reassuring

Ha!

This reminds me of the time that one of my college freinds who was not a missouri native asked me "Have you ever heard of Whitey Herzog? He's my friend's uncle, and he's coming to town." Unfortunately, it was a non-open to the public event, but still...

So, Smoltzie outduels the Rocket. Hope that's good luck for bearded postseason pitchers. (btw, how awesome would it be to have Smoltzie and Morris get into a classic duel in the postseason?). So, who is the champion of the beard-off?

The man on the left, with the coy look in his eyes, or the man on the right, with the wrath of Leo Mazzone in his?














Remember, you can judge this based only upon beard quality. All baseball stats are to be totally ignored. For entertainment value only. Please consult a doctor before attempting to grow an awesome beard.

And for my money, Morris has a way awesomer (it's a word NOW, dammit!) mountain man look than Smoltz's trimmed, controlled look.

That's more like it

That was a fun game to watch. I saw the event at a local bar. Sat next to a very friendly Astros fan. He was cheering for the padres for the sake of having the Astros play them in the NLCS (no hard feelings for that).

I like watching these type of relative "small ball" games. No huge innings, and simply a couple of mistakes hurting the padres. Astacio looked terrified of Albert. He seemed to alternate weirdly between being quite poised and being rediculously erratic. Both me and my Astros fan stranger agreed that the Padres' catcher was horrendously awful at blocking the plate. Unfortunately for him, and wonderfully for me, this deficiency resulted in two cardinals runs. Eckstein looked better to me than his stats probably indicate. finally, thank fucking god that the bullpen stabilized somewhat. Finally, Mulder lived up to his swamp gas reputation. He scattered those hits like crazy, and got plenty of double plays. Astros fan was amazed at this. I was impressed, but I guess I've been spoiled by recent years watching these cardinals teams.

next: the moment I've been dreading--Cards vs. Woody in the postseason. And of course, it has to be el beardo vs. Woody. I think I just have to hope that woody only goes six, and the cards bats come alive against the pads 'pen.

Izzy!!!

Seriously, what the hell was that? How the fuck did a 8-2 lead almost get completely coughed up in the 9th. Ah well, it's not like I've not been stressed out about the bullpen in the postseason before. After all, a win is a win, and Carp seems to be doing fine, and TLR is not pushing him too hard. Larry, Reggie and Jimmy are getting in on the hitting fun. Really, all of my concerns are much alleviated by that game, other than my terror of the bullpen. And now the Pads have to win twice in games not started by Peavy.

Please, Please, Tony, put MattyMo in the 'pen, and use him. It will strengthen both the rotation and the bullpen.

Playoffs

Ah, it is playoff time, the best and worst time for me. People begin to find me truly obnoxious in many ways. I am far away from the center of Cardinal nation, and in fact, am admidst the territory of another playoff team, something that made me less than popular at the local sports viewing establishments last year.

This is the time that I begin to wear almost nothing but Cardinals attire on non-off days, and begin to obsessively learn the names of losers like Dave Miceli and Dan Wheeler. When a game of catch with my dog turns into me imagining that I'm pitching to some streaky batter in late in a close game. This is when tensions begin to flare between me and my red sox loving classmates. A time for joy and misery. It still stings how fast it went from one to the other last year. I sure as hell can't get Uncle Tupelo's "I wanna destroy you" out of my head these days. Teams that I kinda like have now just become mere obstacles in the way of the Cardinals' victory. Teams taht I already didn't like have become goddamn fucking satan.

On a side note, I would like to here implore Tony La Russa to please employ Matt Morris's services in the 8th inning this year. He would be ever so good at it--he has done well in the 1st most of the time, and if he was throwing in relief, there would be much less worries about hitters seeing his pitches multiple times, thus masking the problems with his bad curve, and the reduced repretoire that has ensued due to this unfortunate occurance. He would also be free to throw as hard as he possibly can, without concern for saving himself for later innings that aren't there. Suppan has earned his spot on the postseason rotation, and Marquis has too, both with his bat and his arm. I'm intrigued by the idea of Anthony Reyes on the postseason roster post-Al Reyes' injury. We'll see what Tony comes up with.

All I can say, it's fucking go time.

I say!

It's time that we demanded a moratorium on the phrase "junk science" from people. I think that the nonstop insulting of everything has grown to the point that it is rediculous and counterproductive.

I am not saying that there are not insane pseudoscientists out there in the world, attempting to do everything from "disprove" evolution and the Big Bang to insane politically motivated nonsense about how oil burning helps the environment. These people clearly exist, and their existence is a problem.

The solution, however, is not to go around insulting these people, and by extension, anyone whose ears they might have. Instead, it is necessary that we, with the patience of saints, calmly go around, showing why their viewpoint doesn't hold up when you think about it at all. This approach will go a lot further in dispelling the "contraversial" nature of their work, and make them look like the shill, obnoxious bastards that they are. Ignoring them, though satisfying, just adds to their already overinflated persecution complex, which enables their movement to grow, and which has put us into our current mess, I say.

In particular, when the ID people go on about the young universe, rather than engaging them on the ground that they want, (talking about how one species changes into another, blah, blah), in terms that they define so that they are intentionally confusing, thus enabling a third party to get confused by their dodgy questioning, why not start questioning them about astronomy? Why not ask them to justify the precession of Mercury's perehilion (or the bending of light by the sun, or gravitational redshift of light) without using General relativity? Ask them to explain how the universe could be 4000 years old when this same General Relativity strongly indicates that is more like 15 billion years old. ID people haven't even thought about these questions, much less come up with the kind of nonsensical non-answers that they have for a lot of the evolution related things. And these sort of questions don't admit the same sort of "common sense" anti-answers that the biological questions do.

And for those of you in the field, who run around doing nothing but insulting other serious researchers in the field, calling names as much as you are actually criticising people's work/offering constructive criticism: fuck off--everyone's trying, and history has shown that the most arrogant person's point of view proves to be incorrect as often as it does not. c.f. the origin of non-classical physics.