As I do every other day, I walked Lucky Dog around the neighborhood park today. Our park has two soccer fields, both of which are in use most Saturdays and, maybe, Sundays. Today, all around the two fields, I picked up small water bottles thoughtlessly tossed on the ground by players or fans (parents). We tell ourselves many lies, one of which is that “sports build character and discipline.” The evidence of that litters fields all over the world. Another lie: “environmental consciousness has become mainstream.” Or any kind of consciousness, for that matter.
To all the coaches, referees and parents: how about a post-game sweep of the field to clean-up? Show some leadership, teach some discipline, encourage some character. To the athletes: it’s up to you to keep your world from becoming a pigsty. mjh
PS: original blog entry 04/23/07; printed in abqjournal.com 5/8/07
Monthly Archives: May 2007
Who Represents Diversity and Change?
The choice among Democrats is clearly diverse, though the largest minority group represented is Senators. What isn’t obvious from looking at all the old white men among Republicans is that they, too, are unusually diverse (for Republicans), including an Italian-American and a Mormon. Which party represents change? Which party represents holding your nose and sticking with 8 years of failure?
Of course, where the debates were held also has intentional symbolism. Each location was named after the party’s most revered icon. Democrats met at a historically black college in the South (where they avoided discussing race), in a hall named for Martin Luther King, who represents suffering and struggling along the road to a better world. Republicans met at the Raygun Library, named after a privileged white guy and B-actor they love beyond any understanding.
Do Republicans have the slightest hope of winning any office in 2008? Sure, with swiftboats full of money, you can do anything in America. mjh
’08 Republicans Differ on Defining Party’s Future
There were revealing moments that went past the well-rehearsed lines by all the candidates. Three of the candidates — Mr. Huckabee, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado — raised their hands to signal that they do not believe in evolution. [mjh: splitting the cretin vote]
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20070504/ZNYT02/705040353/1005/SPORTS0106
This Week’s WTF?!
ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor
The temporary global warming that we are now enjoying is indeed being caused by the same phenomenon that created the infamous “dust bowl” in the Midwest during the 1930s, namely a 40-year drought cycle. We are in the middle of another one. It, too, shall pass.
No one yet knows what causes short-term climate cycles. Real scientists think that they are the result of periodic, but not yet fully understood, solar activity. There is apparently a correlation between climate cycles and fluctuating sunspot activity. …
The important point is that there is no evidence for any over sweeping global warming caused by manmade carbon dioxide production, or any other greenhouse gas for that matter. The longer, drier summers and shorter winters we are now experiencing are a result of the 40-year cycle that we are about half way through.
In another decade or so, we will pass back into a cooler, wetter cycle like last occurred during the 1980s. At that time, I am sure the alarmists will be out again, as they were back in the 1980s, decrying the inevitable, inescapable and entirely destructive global cooling. They will, of course, exhort you to stop using valuable energy for the enjoyment of your life, because it will be needed to melt the great ice sheets. You can’t win.
JOHN BLAYLOCK
Los Alamos
John has figured out the environmentalists: we live to make you miserable. Yup, all we want to do is force you to live a primitive, bleak lifestyle (like ranching, except we want to destroy that, too). Fortunately, the good people who grow rich off of your ignorance are standing up to us. Show your support by wasting something every day! Join the oxymorons at Conservatives For Waste! mjh
Four More Years? Or Forty?
April Toll Is Highest Of ’07 for U.S. Troops
Over 100 Killed in Month; Iraqi Deaths Far Higher
By Sudarsan Raghavan and Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, April 30 — The deaths of more than 100 American troops in April made it the deadliest month so far this year for U.S. forces in Iraq, underscoring the growing exposure of Americans as thousands of reinforcements arrive for an 11-week-old offensive to tame sectarian violence.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/30/AR2007043001929_pf.html
Republicans Buck Bush On Iraq Benchmarks – washingtonpost.com, By Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post Staff Writer
Brushing aside White House opposition, Republican leaders in Congress said yesterday that negotiations on a second war spending bill should begin with benchmarks of success for the Iraqi government, and possible consequences if those benchmarks are not met.
Democratic leaders will send a $124 billion war funding bill to President Bush today that would establish such benchmarks and tie them to troop withdrawals, which would begin as early as July 1 if they are not met. The bill will arrive at the White House on the fourth anniversary of Bush’s speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, when he declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq before a banner that proclaimed “Mission Accomplished.”
The administration dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday to try to slam shut bipartisan talk of punishing the Iraqi government for not meeting benchmarks. Bush took the same uncompromising tone yesterday when he reiterated his veto promise.
“That’s not to say I’m not interested in their opinions. I am,” he said of congressional leaders. “I look forward to working with members of both parties to get a bill that doesn’t set artificial timetables and doesn’t micromanage and gets the money to our troops.”
But GOP leaders did not take the benchmark issue off the table. House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) suggested last week that although Republicans could not accept linking benchmarks to troop withdrawals, they could tie them to $5.7 billion in nonmilitary assistance for the Iraqi government.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/30/AR2007043001527_pf.html
Note to Calcified Cal Thomas
Cal Thomas: “Do the war’s opponents realize, or care, that every critical statement they make is reported by the enemy’s media and passed on to homicide bombers and fighters to encourage them to keep killing Americans and Iraqis?”
What are the war’s opponents supposed to do, Cal? Just shut up and accept a war without end? Do you plan to hold your tongue when this mess lands on the desk of the next Democratic president because Duhbya can’t finish the job?
The bullying tactics that were used to silence opposition four years ago won’t work any longer. The NeoConmen had their chance and blew it. mjh
With a Tie, No One Loses
I’ve been playing volleyball with the same group of friends almost every Sunday afternoon for at least 15 years, maybe 20. Some of them have been playing together over 30 years. Children have grown up, become players and gone on to have their own children. (No grandchildren play — yet.)
We meet in a field in Los Lunas for 2 to 3 hours. Sometimes the play is vigorous. Sometimes we get on each others nerves. But, I’m sure it is the high point of most weeks for each of us.
Each game, we split into two teams somewhat randomly. As many games as the dozen of us have played, we’ve surely been through every combination several times.
Sometimes the scoring is quite lopsided, then sometimes it rights itself. Close games aren’t unusual. Every so often, one team catches the other in a tie close to the end. At that point, I often say, “how do you feel about a tie?” I’m sure I was being a smart-aleck the first time, but after years of proposing a tie only to be overridden by everyone else, I have come to think of it as my quest.
Sunday, the final game was a killer. We played 3-on-3, which is grueling. Each team moved ahead of the other in groups of 4 or 5 points, only to be caught and passed. It looked like my side would lose narrowly (and, honestly, I wouldn’t care or remember for long). I was serving when we caught up at 20-20 — it would take two more points for either side to win. I proposed a tie — no one took me seriously. I thought, “I can MAKE a tie.” I dropped the ball and walked off the court (probably a forfeit in “real” volleyball). The remaining players seemed poised to play on, with mild derision directed my way. I pulled my trump card: “When I’m dead, you’ll stop at a tie to honor me. Why not do it now, when I can appreciate it?”
For the one and only time in 30+ years, a game ended in a tie. As Chris noted, we may be the only 6 volleyball players ever to play to a tie. I’m very happy. mjh