On to the World Series

I'd like to think in some small way our vigil for Mike Lowell, Mrs. Lowell's youngest son, made the difference in this series against the Indians.

Human Nature

Here is a series of recent photos that offers evidence that people are not rational creatures:

Poverty

One more reason why I can't take much of the hip-hop community seriously:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/15/people.ti.ap/index.html

Here are my favorite quotes from the article:

KRS-One, whose real name is Lawrence Parker, said the fellow rapper's legal woes should not reflect on the industry as a whole.

"I'm saddened anytime I hear of a hip-hopper being locked up or somehow stunted in his life or his growth," he told The Associated Press. "I hope he wasn't into nothing crazy."

No, not at all! Those purchases were going to end up as trophy pieces above the mantle, I'm sure. There's no tradition of glorifying violence among rappers!

Notice too the objectification of the event as something external. T.I. was "locked up" or "stunted". You'd never think from these comments that it was something that this individual did to himself or was responsible for.

Chicago rapper Common, who won the CD of the year award along with T.I., tried to lend his support at the awards show.

"I salute my guy T.I., who also won, wherever he is," said Common, while raising up his trophy.

Exactly. Props for a convicted felon who's been caught buying machine guns and silencers. The subculture of protection and denial in the black community is extraordinary.

Bob, Bicycle Surveyor

I ALWAYS go biking with the camera as you never know what you'll bump into, literally or otherwise. For you intelligence gathering types out there, here's a brief sampling of boats and ships recent to Boston harbor (as seen from Castle Island at least).

Where's that baggy pants ordinance???

“Black-brown coalitions are tough to sustain.”

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/03/roland.martin/index.html

Sure is when you have “the white man” working against your interests. What about white/brown coalitions? Are they anything like black/white coalitions?

If I'm white and I share political commitments with someone of a different color, does that mean we've formed a coalition, whereas if the other person were the same color as I, we simply have similar interests? Can only a "black" canidate represent a "black" constituency?

Have I got it all wrong this whole time in not realizing that my skin color and race inform my political interests?

“…neither group can afford to be egomaniacal and regard the other as irrelevant. Hispanics and blacks aren't going anywhere, and they better resolve their disputes, or watch both groups remain at a standstill.”

I’m sure Thomas Sowell would have a lot to say about this statement, but the excerpt does well to highlight the overhyped view that the only thing holding minorities back in America is underrepresentation and exlusion (white privilege), and the way to improve conditions and access is through political power.

“Blacks are not the enemy of Hispanics, and vice versa. The enemy is a lack of quality of education, being shut out of the economic levers, as well as poor health care. The resources of this nation should go where the need is.”

Wow, can’t get anymore implicit racism with that socialist statement. He means to say that black and brown people have got to band together to demand whitey open up the schools and the jobs to us.

The enemy of blacks, browns, or whites is a dysfunctional poverty of culture that doesn’t take advantage of educational opportunity, doesn’t prepare itself for participation in the work force, and makes poor life choices in diet, exercise, or family planning.

You’ll never hear a politician articulate that criticism. You know, because we’re all one people.

US 'terrorists'

From the opening paragraph of Seymour Hersh's latest article:

October 8, 2007

Foreign Policy; Pentagon; Iranian Operations Group; Plans

Planning: In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran. “Shia extremists, backed by Iran, are training Iraqis to carry out attacks on our forces and the Iraqi people,” Bush told the national convention of the American Legion in August. “The attacks on our bases and our troops by Iranian-supplied munitions have increased."

So, wait a minute. You don't have to go to a Bush speech as a source for proof of what Iran is doing in Iraq. If the Iranians are promoting instability by providing training and weapons to the insurgency in Iraq, a policy which has directly resulted in the death of our soldiers, isn't it Iran that has redefined the war in Iraq as a strategic battle between Iran and the United States?

I can't take articles like this seriously when in the opening comments a fundamental flaw in thinking has taken place.