Best game ever in the month of July?

Back on April 24, I pooh-poohed the importance of the three game, weekend series between the Yankees and the Red Sox because it was so early in the year. It turns out that I was right that the series had very little impact on the overall race for the AL East (I believe that the Sox swept that April series but are still down 8.5 games to the Yanks -- and it's only July). However, I think that I underestimated the importance and the passion of any Sox/Yanks game. Last night's game between the two storied rivals served as a reminder that anytime these two teams take the field it is an event worth watching.

Now, I do not claim to be a baseball historian. Not by any means. But, I submit to you that last night's game in the Bronx may have been the greatest game ever played in the month of July. Since I live out of market, I was forced to experience the game via minute by minute highlights on ESPN. But even in this broken up format, I was riveted to my television and moved to wake up my parents with an 11 o'clock phone call just so I could experience this game with someone else.

This game had everything. Head-hunting by Sox ace, Pedro Martinez. A gutty performance on the mound by a baby-faced, rookie, left-hander. Yankees catcher, Jorge Posada hitting a 2-run homer off his blood enemy. A dominant performance by Red Sox slugger, Manny Ramirez. A thrilling, three-run come-back by the Sox to force extra innings. A fabulous play in the field by Sox reserve shortstop, Pokey Reese. And an even more fabulous play by Mr. Yankee, Derek Jeter, to steal a hit that would have given the Sox a twlefth inning lead.

(AP)

DJ's play was perhaps the finest defensive play that I have ever seen in a baseball game. Partially because of the intensity of the rivalry. Partially because of the game situation. And mostly because of the combination of athleticism and selfless hustle that were required to make the play. Jeter came out of the stands with the baseball and a bloody face.

(Shaw/Getty Images)

The Yanks went on to notch a come-from-behind win in the thirteenth inning. It was an amazing finish and worthy addition to the history of the Yanks/Sox rivalry.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the Yanks magic number is 78.

Quote of the Day 7/1/04

"It's really changed me. For the first time I'm in favor of the Bush tax cuts." Ken Jennings, in the midst of a 22-game, $700K+ winning streak on Jeopardy.

The Lies of Michael Moore

Well S, we finally have a chance to talk. I certainly appreciate the opportunity you have given me to answer your charge that there are NO lies in Michael Moore's "masterpiece" Fahrenheit 9/11. I saw the film on opening night because, as the saying goes, "keep your enemies closer."

Now, I will preface by citing some influences and sources I have checked out myself:

Chris Hitchens, Slate, great article:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2102723/

A good fact check:
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/23542.htm

Ok, onto SOME of the lies...
1) The film's major theme is that Bush is an illegitimate president. He supports this claim with the statement that Bush lost every recount done since the election and only won because the Supreme Court stopped the recounts. As I watched my mouth dropped open...huh? Because, as I recalled, all of the media and state recounts done AFTER Bush became president showed that indeed HE had won. So, I decided I would make sure I was right. And it took me approximately 2 minutes to find out I was:
www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/florida.ballots/stories/main.html

Oh, and by the way, Fox News had nothing to do with Bush being declared the winner in Florida at 2:00 AM the night of the election: the Voter News Service projected him the winner. The other networks followed suit because they ALL used VNS. Fox was the first to declare (I am certain Banshee remembers that happening!) but the film fails to mention the fact that Florida was declared "too close to call" from around 11 pm on...

2) Moore claims that Osama bin Laden still has connections to his family and thus Bush and the bin Ladens are profiting from Osama's work, possibly purposely...

In 1994 the House of Saud officially kicked Osama out of their country. Originally, they wanted to keep it quiet, knowing that it would discredit his family if they were to make it public. However, by 1994, his family decided it was not in their best interest to be associated with him and so they made concerted efforts to detach themselves from him. So then the Saudi government was able, with American pressure, to remove Osama's citizenship and freeze whatever assets they could.
If a bin Laden did visit Osama months before 9/11, it really means nothing. As reported continuously, the bin Laden family is huge, consisting of hundreds of members. Those that were in the US, however, have no loyalty to Osama. They represent the main core of the bin Laden family. But if you know anything about Islam or about Arabia, the rules about family are very complicated. Its a big deal to cut off a family member...in fact it is illegal to deny a family member his rightful inheritance. But they have done just that (or tried).

3) Moore says that the flights being authorized showed how connected Bush is to the Saudis and the bin Ladens.

Ah ah ah...guess who happened to authorize the flights of the Saudis? None other than Moore super-hero Richard Clarke. And he says, without equivocation, that it was his call to send them out. And why? Because he knew they were not a risk to the nation. Instead, they were at risk being here because of potential backlash against Muslims, Arabs, and specifically bin Laden's family that many suspected would occur. And the people sent out were checked out by the FBI. And, interestingly, Moore's "investigation" never yielded any information that would support the idea that these people had ANY tie to Osama.

4) Moore says tobacco companies pressured Bush (who is their puppet?) to allow lighters on planes so they could make money off of smokers who light up as soon as they get off flights.

What? Ok, I have no idea where this could be researched, but the claim is made with NO evidence to back it up. So I urge you, Mr. or Ms. S to prove it to me. Otherwise, I count it as lie.

5) My final lie will be Moore's claim that Iraq and the Iraqi government never hurt, killed, murdered, threatened, or whatever an American...

Double HUH? Ok
Threatened: Tried to kill GHW Bush in 1994. Shot at our planes everyday from the beginning of the No-Fly Zones to the end.

Murdered: Missing Americans in Iraq from the first Gulf War are reportedly still imprisoned there, but most likely were killed by the Iraqi government while in captivity. Supported terrorists Abu Nidal and PAID terrorists to kill people (including Americans) in Israel. Not to mention that Iraqi foriegn representatives had meetings with Al Qaeda.

Harmed: Originally compiled and used weapons of mass destruction. Developed weapons with range to hit US bases in Saudi Arabia. Launched missiles into Israel during Gulf War that hurt/killed civilians.

Now, the fact is, yes, Mr. Hussein did not directly threaten the US in 2002. But, he had in 1991 via his potential accumulation of both Kuwait and, had the US not intervened, eventually Saudi Arabia. Now, what do these three countries have? Ah yes, 50% of the world's oil. Had Mr. Hussein acquired such power, he would have most definitely been able to harm the US. And it would be naive for us to think that he didn't intend for this to happen again in the future. In fact, had the world continued to turn a blind eye to him, it would have only been a matter of time before it would have happened.

Now, one of the best things about F9/11 is Mr. Moore's insistence on taking all sorts of stands on issues. For example, he says it is illegitimate for us to attack Iraq because they didn't hurt us, but he claims we should have DONE MORE to overthrow the Taliban. The Taliban did nothing to harm us (by his definition) except harbor terrorists and try to spread its radical message to others. So why should we have sent MORE troops to Afghanistan? I won't even begin to ask why NOW Mr. Moore wanted us to send MORE troops to Afghanistan when in 2002 he publicly decried sending ANY troops!

His premise is also that Mr. Bush is a fool. Totally incompetent. Borderline mentally disabled. But then portrays him as an absolutely diabolical madman whose genius in the 1970s and 80s was so keen that he set this whole thing up back then. Oh and then we are supposed to hate him because he is rich. And connected. And supported by a lot of people who know people. Very dissimilar to Michael Moore himself (or anyone else in politics today)...I think not.

I think Hitchens puts it best when he says that Moore's argument should be with the SYSTEM, not with Bush.

If ANYONE wants, debate me on the issues. Pick something out of the film and challenge me on it. I think this film was DANGEROUS because it was untruthful. It was very similar to propaganda used in authoritarian regimes around the world. In fact, Saddam himself had a movie made about his heroics in the overthrow of the Iraqi government in the early 1970s. Of course, that film was chock full of lies (it fails to mention, for example, that Saddam was shot in the leg by one of his accomplices in a failed coup), but it served Saddam's purpose. In the same sense, this film fails to mention that the Patriot Act had bipartisan support and has not yet caused any significant rights violations to this day (or, I should say, really fails to establish that it has by virtue that its two examples of supposed problems had nothing to do with the Patriot Act).

So, I ask you, S, does this satisfy you?
JK

Quote of the Day 6/30/04

"I'm not the same person I was when I bit that guy's ear off." Mike Tyson in comments about his recent financial hardships.

Thoughts from the road

Let me start off by apologizing for the extra blog-free delay. I'm sure that many of you logged on last night in great anticipation of my return. I am truly sorry for the obvious disappointment you undoubtedly felt.

Pedal to the metal: Any of you who have driven on I-81 for more than about 90 miles surely know that a stand-still in traffic should always be an expected part of the journey. My trip began with just such a delay. Traffic was stopped for 25 minutes as a result of an accident. Now, as it turned out, there weren't actually any wrecked cars blocking the roadway. However, there was plenty of good stuff to look at. There were about three minor accidents that apparently occurred as a result of the main incident. The serious part of the accident consisted of a Bronco that apparently rolled more than once.

This accident and the passing drivers' responses to the wreck revealed something sort of bizarre about the psyche of the American motorist. After coming to a complete stop to take a good, hard look at a Bronco resting on its roof on the median, everyone in line pushed the accelerator through the floorboards to get back up to 75 mph as quickly as possible.

Cops on foot: I don't really have any commentary on this, but I wanted to share this observation. Just after the Bay Bridge on Rt. 50 East in Maryland, I saw a policeman on foot in the median pointing his radar gun into traffic. This isn't the first time that I've seen this on Rt. 50, either. The policeman was leaning against the patrol car, and the trunk of the car was open. I couldn't see if there was a second policeman at the wheel of the car, but this whole thing seemed sort of bizarre to me. Seems hard to picture actually getting nabbed by a policeman on foot. However, traffic did slow down appreciably in the area around this dismounted trooper. Perhaps that was the real goal.

AM in DC: I learned today that AM radio in the greater DC area is hosted almost entirely by non-English speakers. I've lived in DC on two separate occassions, but I never knew that before.

Quote of the Day 6/25/04

“It is only when men forget to fight for right that they fail.” Richard Lllewellyn, How Green Was My Valley

Banshee vacation

Rush Limbaugh took this week off. Sean Hannity is taking next week off. So, I figured it would be okay if Wild Banshee took a vacation this weekend. I will be taking my substitute car on a road trip (yeah, the Banshee Mobile is still in the shop -- three weeks and counting) through PA, MD, WV and of couse, VA. I will return to blogging on Tuesday.

Quote of the Day 6/24/04

"Don’t ever take down a fence until you know the reason why it was put up." G.K. Chesterton

50 Hottest Bachelors

Yesterday's content was kind of heavy, so I decided that it was time to lighten things up a bit. So, here we go.

People Magazine recently unveiled their "50 Hottest Bachelors" list. Orlando Bloom came in at #1. Certainly a good selection. But my favorite pick was the 24 year-old NASCAR rookie, Kasey Kahne.



Kahne drives the #9 Dodge for Evernham racing and is having a strong season on the track. Kahne is certainly a good looking guy, but he would not have been my pick from amongst the NASCAR ranks. And, no, I would not pick Dale, Jr. either. As I've stated before on this blog, my pick for hottest driver in Nextel Cup racing is Jamie McMurray.



McMurray is 28 years old and was the 2003 rookie of the year.

New Face of the NBA

Larry Bird caused some controversy this month when he suggested that the NBA needed more white stars. I disagreed with that comment. I thought that the NBA just needed more appealing stars. A little less, hip-hop. A little less street thug. A little bit less tattooed. It didn't have to do with race so much as with image.

Well, the NBA took a good step in the right direction tonight at their annual draft. The first two selections in the draft are not just talented players, but they're the kind of guys that dads would want their daughters to date.

The Orlando Magic used the first pick in the draft to select 18 year-old Dwight Howard. Howard is coming straight out of Southwest Atlanta Christian High School. He's a clean-cut, good looking kid. His dad is a state trooper and has arranged for Dwight's uncle to travel with the young man as he learns the ropes of life in the NBA. In an interview immediately following his #1 selection, Dwight told Stewart Scott, "I'm just gonna be working hard and keeping God first, and everything will fall in line."

The expansion, Charlotte Bobcats drafted second and selected UConn's Emeka Okafor. Okafor has stunning good looks and always appeared in a shirt and tie when injuries kept him out of several games this season. Okafor's family came from war-torn Nigeria. Okafor's dad set a good example for Emeka when it came to education, and Emeka did not disappoint. Emeka left UConn while he still had another year of basketball eligibility remaining but not before he had earned his degree in finance in just three years with a 3.8 GPA.

Good luck to both.