Friday, May 12, 2006

Amusing First Line

It's not quite "Call me Ishmael" or "Howard Roark laughed", but this was an amusing first line to a newsreport in the Boston Herald:

"For much of last night’s game, Yankee Stadium took on the feel of Southie on St. Patrick’s Day due to the number of Bostonians left loaded in public."

It's amusing because the Red Sox left 15 men on base last night, and had the bases loaded at least three times during the game (without scoring).

'Course the Sox still won.

I broke down this week and got MLB.TV. There is a distinct possibility that this could push the completion of my Ph.d back by 6 months. (just kidding--I hope).

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Go Sox!

Sox take 2 out of 3 in the Bronx. Yippie!!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

The New Unabomber

In today's WSJ editorial (registration required), they compare Ahmadinejad's lettter to Bush -- in terms of the psychological frame of mind of the author -- to the Unabomber's Manifesto.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Great Quote

"The president of Iran should remember that Iran can also be wiped off the map"
— Shimon Peres
The Israeli Vice Premier, in an interview
(from Time Magazine's Quote of the Day )

George Bush: Christian Socialist

The other morning I was listening to the Cato Institute's book forum "Imposter: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy". (Event information and download). This is a new book by Bruce Bartlett criticizing Bush's domestic policies for greatly expanding the federal government in size and power (even more than FDR!). He was joined by noted author and commentatory Andrew Sullivan. Cato asked the Bush Administration to send someone to counter--but the administration declined. It was a very interesting and educational forum. I am not sure I regret voting for Bush in the last election (given the options) but I wouldn't be able to vote for him again (if that were even an option).

Anyway, Sullivan had a great comment characterizing Bush as a Christian Socialist. This seems incredibly apt. By this, Sullivan meant that Bush has used the power of government to enact (or try to enact) his Christian cultural and social vision. Another important point made in the forum discussion is that this also explains the (welfare/egalitarian) liberal hatred of Bush even though he's enacted or adopted most of their domestic program and got more it done than Clinton. The hatred of Bush is not over what he is doing -- it is over the why.