Gotta love Google

So sometimes I get full of myself and Google my name to see how many pages come up. Today's search came up with 15 pages.

Before you check to see if I'm telling the truth, let me tell you that most of those pages are from websites (American and international) that are selling the book I compiled and edited last year while I was managing editor of The Responsive Community. (Want an autograph?) So not really so special, but c'mon, I'm now in the Library of Congress!

So while perusing thru the 15 pages of Google links, I found these two:
The Modern History Project
The Anti-Communitarian League (do a Find for my name, it's there I promise)

So I've got a question and a comment:
What the hell is the Modern History Project anyways? (Who cares? They think I'm a significant person!)
I'm now an "Enemy within the Gates." Who knew?

Ain't it ironic how the question they ask is the same question I ask at the top of my blog? Now how many people are wondering about the essence of YOUR soul?

There go my 15 minutes...

The way it should be

Jackie Robinson retired from baseball in 1957 rather than accept a trade from the Dodgers to the Giants.

Now THAT'S the way the game should be played.

Not the way today's players do it.

Johnny Damon in pinstripes? Are you out of your mind? Has hell frozen over?

Why on earth would a player from the Red Sox ever, EVER sign with their hated rivals, New York Yankees (or vice versa for that matter)?

Money talks. Yeah, we all know that. But what is the difference already between $40 and $52 million when you're choosing between the team you finally won a World Series with after finally beating the hated Yankees to get there??

I just don't get it. Does rivalry matter anymore in sports?

Jackie Robinson did it right. He had his priorities and values set straight.

Free agency has hurt the sport. And the day the majority of players turn their backs on true rivalries and sign with the teams they swore to beat, is the day baseball dies.

Being held hostage

I consider myself to be somwhat liberal, but also a fairly-minded individual. Those who know me would probably assume that, under most circumstances, I would tend to back labor when they're pitted against big business and their employers.

Well, not this time folks. I'm quite incensed over what's been going on in New York the last two days. And learning more about the union demands and what they left on the table during the wee hours of Monday morning's last-ditch effort at negotiations makes me believe that the union leadership doesn't give a rats ass about anyone other than themselves.

The issue here is pension and benefits for new employees. The union wants new employees to enjoy the same benefits as the old ones and the MTA claims that they need to restructure the pension plans because of rising costs and simply because they won't be able to afford it in the long-term. At first, the MTA wanted to raise the retirement age for new employees to 62. The union would have none of that. Neither side budged- until Sunday night/Monday morning, when the MTA agreed to keep the retirement age at 55 and require new employees to pay 6% into their pension, an increase from the 2% that employees pay now. The MTA also caved on wages- instead of sticking to their 3% increase proposal (following inflation), they gave the union a 3.5% wage increase. But the union walked out anyways.

What else do they want, a new Lexus in the driveway? The MTA put a new package on the table and instead of giving a counter-offer, the union just walked away, crippling the city, forcing people to walk miles in the bitter cold to get to where they need to go- be it work, shopping, appointments, radiation and chemo treatments. Forcing my dad to open his shop but just sit there waiting in an empty garage for cars that need service that will never show up, because they can't get into the city. All the money that is being lost. Is it really worth it?

And now they have the nerve to complain that the penalties that are being levied on them for striking are too high. Did they bother reading the Taylor Law before deciding to walk off the job?

Ya know, I understand why unions exist. They protect labor from unfair practices and serve as a voice for those who wouldn't have one otherwise. But it's not like the transportation employees make a pittance. They make at least $45-50k for jobs that don't need higher education degrees, and they get all their benefits paid by their employers. Yes- other unions have the same benefits package. But police and firemen protect the general public from harm, with just a starting salary of $25k AND they require education and special training. Teachers- well, they teach. 'Nuf said.

So don't tell me that the union is refusing to compromise because they don't want to sellout the "unborn" (i.e., new workers). They're not selling out. Try telling that to millions who ride the subways and buses everyday, to those who get paid less and who even have retirement packages waiting for them at age 65.

Sucks to be me this morning, Updated

I'm sitting at the Chevron gas station on Virginia Avenue across the street from the Watergate. Why, you ask?

Well, in short:

- tow truck showed up and placed donut on car.
- old tire was slashed. (I feel violated.)
- started driving towards an NTB to buy a new tire. Got to 23th and H, and my donut went flat.
- drove to the gas station to fill it with air. Got to gas station, air machine out of service, tread on tire halfway off.
- now waiting at gas station for tow truck.

Did I cover it all?

Got 57 minutes left on my laptop battery. It's snowing now.

Sucks to be me this morning

So here I am, awake early to finish packing for my trip to NY (it's my cousin's bar mitzvah this weekend, so I had planned to drive up to NY after work this evening). I get all my things together- laundry basket full of laundry to wash at home, bag, fancy outfit for the party, and computer in tow. I leave my apartment, drag everything towards the elevator, and press the "down" button.

Nothing.

Press it again.

Nothing.

Damn. The elevator is broken.

OK- no biggy. I take a deep breath and haul all my stuff down 5 flights of stairs. Good exercise, right?

So I take it all to my car and pack it in my trunk. I walk around my car to the driver's side, and, lo and behold, what do I find? A flat tire.

D'OH!

All my early morning plans out the window.

So now I'm sitting in my apartment, waiting oh so patiently for Geico to send their emergency roadside assistance to help me put on the spare, so I can drive the car to an NTB and buy a new tire. Why do we drive around with spares anyway instead of the real thing?

All this means that I'm gonna have to work from home on Friday to make up my time. PBTH!!!!!!

I'm not happy.

Snow babies

Ari stole my thunder, but I'll echo his sentiments anyways. Never before have I ever lived in a city which was afraid of a few snowflakes as Washington, DC, is.

I lived most of my life in New York. I even spent 12 months in Syracuse, from July 2002 - June 2003, where total snowfall for the year was 153 inches. It was the first year of Syracuse's three-peat as Golden Snowball Award champion. The University never had a snow day. Not once. Not when it snowed 15 inches overnight. Not when it snowed 3 inches. NEVER.

We had snow days in NY. There were years when we had quite a few. But never when 2 inches covered the ground.

Yesterday, I had to decide whether or not to cancel Adult Education classes at Kesher. My inclination was not to cancel, but one look at the WTOP website and I saw that every single educational institution was shutting down for the day by 5pm. WTF?? Yes, it's snowing. But has anyone checked the temperatures outside? It was hovering around 38 degrees all day before the snow started to come down. Anyone could figure out that the snow wouldn't stick. Even the National Weather Service downgraded their predictions from 3-5 inches to just 1 inch of wet snow. But yet, I had to cancel anyways.

What babies.

Doublespeak

"To be responsible, one needs to stop defining success in Iraq as the absence of terrorist attacks."

Guess who said that?

A crazy liberal?

Nope.

Just a liberal?

Nope.

How about a conservative Republican named Donald Rumsfeld.

And of course he's right. I've been saying this for years in regards to the Israel/Palestine front. And didn't John Kerry say something to this effect at some point during the 2004 campaign? But of course, he got lambasted for being "too soft" and not serious about the "war on terror."

Good morning, Donald. How's life treating you these days?

God bless the game and just play ball already!

All else being equal, I should have shared these thoughts last summer or wait until April. But due to a certain team in New York trading for a certain Major League slugger, the issue has been in the news lately. Well, at least in the sports news, and if you live in New York, you've almost definitely heard something about it. Unless of course you live under a rock.

Since baseball returned to action after the events of September 11, 2001, fans at stadiums all across the country have grown accustomed to being asked to stand and remove their caps at the 7th inning stretch for a rendition of "God Bless America." If you remember, members of Congress spontaneously gathered on the steps of Capitol Hill and sang the song, because they genuinely felt a love of country that day. What else would you expect after you've been attacked in such a manner? From that day on, "God Bless America" turned into the country's second national anthem, becoming yet another way to prove the extent of your patriotism.

At first, we did it for comfort, strength, and unity. To what else could we ordinary citizens turn to show how deep the 9/11 attacks affected us? It became a daily ritual. I remember watching the first professional sporting event played in New York since the attacks. It was Friday September 21, and the Mets were hosting the Atlanta Braves. My brother and cousins went to the game, and I watched with my family at my grandparents. We all sat in front of the TV, with tears welling up in our eyes, as we watched Diana Ross sing "God Bless America" with such grace and added tempo, it almost made you want to get up and dance. Then, with the Mets down 2-1 in the bottom of the 8th, Mike Piazza slugged a game-winning 2-run homer. The place went wild. Even Yankees fans celebrated. It was described around the country as Piazza's greatest moment as a player. With one swing of the bat, he literally carried on his back the entire city of New York to victory. (The Mets were still in the hunt for a playoff spot, and what a story it would have made if the they actually made the postseason. But alas...)

I also remember sitting in the Yankee Stadium bleachers that October, as they played against the Oakland A's in the playoffs (the A's won that game, 1-0). I proudly stood up then too, and removed my cap when "God Bless America" was sung. They even had a bald eagle fly in from center field to make the moment even more poignant.

In the following years, each MLB team had the freedom to decide how they wanted to handle "God Bless America." I don't remember the progression after that, but now most teams don't play it anymore, while some play it on Sundays and on other special days, like July 4th or Memorial Day. The Yankees have to be different, of course. They still play it during every single home game.

Personally, I've gotten sick of it. I became sick of it a long time ago (ask anyone who's gone to baseball games with me between 2002 and now. I don't stop complaining about it.) I'm tired of having this "patriotism," bordering on, if not already jingoism, shoved down my throat. Since when did baseball games become a tool for fostering national pride? It's got nothing to do with my feelings towards US foreign policy or my support for the troops serving overseas. Singing the National Anthem before the beginning of the game is one thing. It's a tradition, which I frankly don't know the origins to, but I have no problem with it. But "God Bless America?" What happened to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" as the traditional 7th inning stretch song? And what about the baseball team that still resides in Canada? Why do those players still have to stand and remove their caps to pay homage to a country they don't live in?

Carlos Delgado, the aformentioned slugger, decided he didn't want to stand for "God Bless America." While playing for the Toronto Blue Jays, he initiated his own quiet protest, calling the war in Iraq "the stupidest war ever" and also used the protest as a show of solidarity with the people of his homeland- the island of Vieques. He's been working hard to get the US government to pay for the absolute mess they left behind after using the island as a weapons training ground for 60 years. (What's left is 50% unemployment, abnormally high cancer rates, and deep poverty.) No one really noticed his protest until two years after the fact. And now that he was traded to the NY Mets, everyone wondered if he would continue to not stand outside the dugout during the singing of the song, and what the reactions of the fans would be.

Frankly, it doesn't bother me one bit that he has decided to not stand up. I hear people saying that he should keep his political views outside of the game and when he's wearing the jersey, he should do what's asked of him. But if he should keep his politics outside, shouldn't Major League Baseball and each team keep politics out as well? The singing of this song is clearly political. And isn't freedom of speech a protected right?

But, to the disappointment of many, Carlos decided to be a good soldier (excuse the pun), and toe the company line. Apparently the Mets have a "team" policy that requires every member of the team to stand (but no one can tell you who actually initiated the rule). Am I disappointed in my team? Yeah, a bit. But Delgado's approach is the right one- "I will not put myself in front of the team."

I've read a lot about this over the last week or so, and here's one piece I found to be the best.

Me, well, I don't remove my cap and sometimes I don't even stand. It's my own little protest. I'm a free thinker and don't need to be told that this is the way I must show my love of country. I'm at the ballpark to enjoy a game and watch the Mets win. So God bless the game and just play ball already!

Disgusted doesn't even begin to describe my feelings after reading this story.

Karla Homolka took part in a series of revolting sex crimes against young teenage girls, including one against her sister, and yet, the powers-that-be in Canada feel that the restrictions put on her after she completed her 12-year sentence (12 years???) needed to be removed.

Let's recap Homolka's crimes:

• in 1990, she held a drug-soaked cloth over her 15 year-old sister's face while her husband raped her. Tammy subsequently died on Christmas Eve.
  
• in the early 1990s, she helped her husband rape, murder, and dismember two teenage girls: 15 year-old Kristen French and 14 year-old Lesley Mahaffy.
• Months after her plea bargain, her now ex-husband's attorney handed over home videotapes showing Homolka as a willing and gleeful participant in the crimes mentioned above, plus a sexual assuault on an annonymous teenager ("Jane Doe").

This woman holds the title as Canada's most infamous female convict. Google her and you can read even more gruesome details about the whys and hows.

The judge who ruled in her favor states that while it is possible Homolka can repeat her crimes, she doesn't represent "a real and imminent danger."

From what I can gather from Canadian press, there are 12 years worth of conflicting assessments by parole board officers, psychologists, and experts. This judge apparently decided to give her positive assessments the benefit of the doubt. Way to go, brother.

There has always been a debate in this country about whether or not the restrictions associated with Megan's Law placed on sex offenders are a violation of their privacy. Studies regarding the "curability" and psychology of sex offenders are inconclusive, but it's fair to say that there is no magic pill involved that will remove such high-risk impulses and reduce recidivism. Treatment and therapy is available, but you don't just lose the desire to commit such acts by sitting in jail for 12 years. No one has argued that Homolka sought out any treatment while in prison. Nor has she sought out the treatment after being released. And treatment takes time, effort, and a lot of support. Support that she probably doesn't have.

There's a good reason many states have enacted Megan's Law. The law isn't perfect, but it's there for a specific purpose. Ideally, it should strike a good balance between public safety and the offenders' rights. But Homolka didn't just commit one crime; she took part in at least 4, and in my book, she's likely to do it again. And if I lived in Canada, I would be afraid.