Base10Blog
Friday, October 27, 2006
 
I Know, I Know

Base10 knows that he hasn't been posting much of lkate. Blame it on school work--both the teaching and learning varieties. Now I'm also in the midst of finals, so time is even tighter.

Base10 is happy, though. The Jets are 4-3 and face Detroit on Sunday. Curiously, Detroit is laying 1.5. I guess the home team should get something. It sure would be nice to have them go into the bye week at 5-3. But Base10 really isn't in a sports type mood today.

I do feel a little fatigue about the midterm elections. I'm being bombarded by the media that the Democrats are going to take control of one or both houses of Congress. I still think the Senate is likely to stay Republican and the House is at worst a toss-up. I just dislike the seemingly endless news cycle about it.

After midterms I'd really like to clean house on the blog. You know, tidy up some links, maybe change the template around a bit. All in good time.


Friday, October 20, 2006
 
Looks Like This is the End

Alas, the Mets lost to the Cardinals last night. What happened? Well, the game was tied and Randolph left Heilman in for a second inning of work in the ninth. Bam! Two-run homer and we're now losing. The Mets put the go-ahead run on the plate but--how shall we say--it's just not their year. I give them credit for trying and putting together a ver enjoyable season.


Thursday, October 19, 2006
 
This is Stupid
In a press conference, President Bush was asked whether he agreed with a Thomas Friedman editorial that argued this month's violence in Iraq was "the jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive." Bush resoponded, "He could be right. There's certainly a stepped-up level of violence, and we're heading into an election."

In yet another example of mainstream media lameness, there are now 69 links on Google News to articles with headlines that read along the lines of "Bush Compares Iraq to Vietnam."

Why does a thoughtful answer result in scare headlines? When the speaker is president Bush, of course.

Just remember, the Tet offensive was a military disaster for the North Vietnamese army. They were effectively destroyed as an organized fighting force after Tet. It was the American media however, that depicted this event as a defeat for US forces and eventually led to American withdrawal.

While there is sectarian violence in Iraq, we're making headway, there's no denying it. While it has been at the cost of American lives, it is only a tiny fraction of of American casualties in southeast asia. Portraying the Iraq war effort as a failure is yet another example of the fecklessness of the American media.

In this regard Iraq is similar to Tet, not in the way some dopey reporter thinks.
 
Joy in Mudville
Well, the Mets did it last night. Rookie pitcher John Maine beat the Cardinal's ace and the Mets won the game 4-2. How cool is that? Anyway, the NLCS deciding game seven is scheduled tonight at 8PM. Niether Maine nor closer Billy Wagner pitched things of beauty, but the both got it done, as did Cory Bradford and Aaron Heilman.

Are the Mets going to do it tonight? I hope so. History shows the odds to be good in this situation. Click here for the preview that has this little item:
The Mets have this streak in their favor: The past 11 home teams that won Game 6 of an LCS or World Series to stave off elimination have won Game 7, too. The last time a home team dropped Game 7 after winning Game 6 was the 1975 World Series, when Boston lost to Cincinnati's Big Red Machine.

Alas, there's also this:
The Cardinals, however, have this going for them: No team in major league history has won more do-or-die Game 7s than the Cardinals, who are 9-4 in those instances.

Reflecting on all of this, I'm just happy that we have a fighting chance of getting to the World Series. That is, after all, all that a fan could ask for. Have your team be competitive. Play with some heart. And give us a chance to go to the big game. As far as I'm concerned, the Mets have done all of these things this season, whatever the outcome is tonight. Don't get me wrong, I certainly want to win, but I'm not going to trash the team if they don't.

In other sports news, there was an interesting statement made by Giants RB Tiki Barber yesteday. From Yahoo Sports:
"I've been considering it (retirement) for a few years now," Barber said. "It comes to a point where your body just doesn't want to take it anymore, you see other opportunities out there. I'm excited about the rest of my life as well as I am about this football season. So we'll see what happens.

"I don't think there are any definites in life. It's too early in the year to say it for sure. But I'm leaning toward it, for sure."

While it would be a loss for football, I think Tiki is right to retire if he wants to. Too many Hall of Fame running backs (and I most definitely put Tiki in that category) end up limping up to the podium with a cane when they're inducted. It's happening right now to Curtis Martin. It shouldn't happen to Tiki too. Tiki Barber is an amazing guy. He writes childrens books. He's very well spoken and interesting. He could and should do whatever makes him happy.

In other football news, a threat to explode a dirty bomb at several football stadiums this weekend has the FBI working. DHS has dismissed the threat as non credible, but you can read more about the investigation here.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
 
Why You Should Still Vote Republican Next Month
Judicial Watch reports:
The Clinton-appointed federal judge who outraged Americans by giving a convicted terrorist facilitator a light sentence, actually praised the convict in open court and said she had performed a public service to the nation.

Manhattan Federal District Court Judge John Koeltl said radical liberal attorney Lynne Stewart had demonstrated enormous skill and dedication during her sentencing hearing this week, adding that it was no exaggeration to say that she performed a public service not only to her clients but to the nation.

This added insult to the extremely lenient 28-month prison sentence that could have been 30 years for the self-proclaimed radical activist attorney who has represented mobsters and violent terrorists in her storied career. In this case, Stewart was convicted by a jury of collaborating with terrorist mastermind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, an architect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six.

'Nuff said.

UPDATE: More here from Andrew McCarthy.
 
Somewhat Less Joy in Mudville
Last night's NLCS got pretty ugly as Tom Glavine got yanked early after giving up a homer to Pujols--although they did manage to pitch out of a bases-loaded with no out inning. Final: Mets lose 2-4. The Mets head back to Shea tonight and are one loss away from elimination. Alas they pitch John Maine against Cards ace Chris Carpenter tonight. We hope for the best, but if the worst happens, there's always football.
 
I'm In Favor of It
"N.C. Congressional Candidates Debate Sex" - AP.
Monday, October 16, 2006
 
Great Joy in Mudville

Yesterday was sure filled with New York sports goodness. First, the Jets recovered fom last week's 41-0 fiasco and beat the Dolphins 20-7. Truth be told they did nearly blow a 20-3 lead and the Fish were a missed field goal away from sending the game to overtime, but a win IS a win, after all, and is not a trivial thing in football. The Jets are now 3-3 on the season and face Detroit and Cleveland before their bye. They actually have a reasonable chance of going 5-3 into their bye, which is pretty neat considering the diminished expectations of this season.

Of course, of even greater import is the Mets victory over the Cardinals last night. Even though we were pitching our worst pitcher, Oliver Perez played like a journeyman. In this our-pitcher-that-sucks versus your-pitcher-that-sucks battle, the Met bats came alive and battered the Card's bullpen finishing 12-5. The series is now tied at 2-2 and a victory tonight would be nice. It would insure that the Cards would need to win two at Shea to take the series while the Mets would only need to win one at home. Unfortunately, tonight's game could be delayed or cancelled due to weather.

Tonight we also have the Bears playing the other Cardinals tonight on MNF. Base10 has some fantasy action in this one since he has the Bear's defense and a receiver playing. Long live sports!


Wednesday, October 11, 2006
 
Nobel Laureate News
An interesting thing happened to Base10 yesterday. On Tuesdays Base10 takes a seminar in economics class. The class provides a forum for visiting professors to present papers to students and faculty and get feedback. Anyway, we're supposed to read the paper before hand and write questions for the professor that runs the class. All well and good, but Monday morning I'm reading the news and there is an announcement that Edmund Phelps, an economics professor at Columbia, had just won the Nobel Prize. The name rang a bell--low and behold, it was the presenter this week.

He actually showed up. So Base10 got to meet a Nobel laureate yesterday.

If you'd like to learn more about Prof. Phelps ideas, you can read this op-ed piece in the WSJ. I dare say that the Nobel committee might not agree with Prof. Phelps opinions.
Monday, October 09, 2006
 
Not Good News
Poofy-haired North Korean "leader" Kim Il Jong apparently tested a nuclear weapon in the early hours this morning. It's still a bit unlcear what happened. The underground explosion was below the kiloton level so the jury is still out. In any event, it is a wildly despabilizing move. Base10 predicts that Japan and South Korea will go nuclear within a year.
 
The Good, The Bad and the Very Ugly
The Good: The Mets won the NLDS! Hurrah! There is great rejoicing in Casa Base10. The 'Boys did in the Dodgers on Saturday night 9-3, sweeping the series. The ghosts of Brooklyn Dodger fans are resting easy tonight. They face the Cardinals in the NLCS on Wednesday. Click here for a preview. The only thing marring the event was an injury to Cliff Floyd whose status is still undetermined.

The Bad: Is it wrong to take pleasure in the Yankee's loss? Maybe. But we'll do it anyway. The team with the $200 million dollar payroll is out. The team that has an All-Star at every position in the lineup is gone. No! Not the Yankees. Surely this is some alternate universe. How could the team that outspent the next highest team by 50% be out? They shouldn't have even had play that creepy little five-game series. They should have just been elevated to the AL Championship simply by virtue of their massive payroll. Anyway, Yanks lose 8-3 and head to the golf course. The loss was right before the start of the Met game on Saturday night, so it was like the maraschino cherry on top of the Mets NLDS victory.

What went wrong? Paying big bucks for aging baseball divas doesn't seem to be a winning strategy. Everyone in the NY sports media is speculating about when--not if--Joe Torre will be fired. But how could you fire a manager that brought you to the post-season every single year in his eleven-year tenure? Base10 thinks he will indeed go, for two reasons. First, you can't fire the players. As much as Steinbrenner would love to get rid of them (and may indeed try to dump A-Rod) aside from delivering some choice words, there's little that he can do to them monetarily. Second, since Lou Pinella is available, this might be the optimal time to change regimes. As a casual observer of the Yanks, it will be interesting next year watching Pinella verbally berate those self-same divas in the press for sub-standard performance. And that's about all I'm going to write about the Yankees until next year.

The Very, Very Ugly: Hey, sometimes you win a football game and sometimes you lose. Sometimes, when you lose, you lose close and you're fighting until the end. Sometimes you play a back-and-forth game and it just goes the other team's way at the two-minute warning. Sometimes you get outclassed by a better team. And sometimes you get smashed in the teeth, kicked in the groin and pummelled over the head repreatedly for four entire quarters of football. The latter was what happened to the Jets yesterday as they played the Jaguars. Jax shut us out 41-0 in one of the most unbearable games I've ever had the displeasure to watch. It was the worse loss for he Jets since 1986 and, as mark Cannizzaro, the NY Post's beat reporter for the team pointed out, the team was never blown out this badly even during the Rich Kotite era. Ouch!

There's very little to take away from the loss. The Jets were victimized by a couple of obviously bad call, but these calls could not have possibly changed the outcome of the game. They got beat at every level. The only good thing that may come from this is that the team might possibly mature as a result. Can they come together as a team and deal with this? If they do, they have the potential to become a great team down the stretch and into next season. If they do not--well see the above item about the Kotite era. The shame of it is that a win over Jacksonville would have given the Jets a winning record going into what is perhaps the softest part of their schedule. The next three weeks they face, in order, Miami, Detroit and Cleveland and then a bye. An eight win season is still entirely possible this year, but yesterday's game was certainly not the start down that road. We'll see.
Friday, October 06, 2006
 
Joy in Mudville
Ah, there's nothing like the post-season. The Mets won game 2 in the NLDS against he formerly Brooklyn Dodgers. The boys took the game 4-1 and now lead the series 2-0 as the head out to LA for the game tomorrow. Mrs. Base10 actually scored a ticket for the game--and went without me! Well, I had to teach anyway.

Meanwhile, that other team in the Bronx lost their game yesterday to the Tigers 3-4. The Yanks are now 1-1 in the ALDS and play today (because of a rain-out Wednesday) in Detroit.

Also, Base10 is sure that there is much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments down in DC where the Base10 Cousin lurks. In an unusually good Thursday night NCAA football game, Florida State was upset by NC State 24-20. Things aren't looking so good for the 'Noles. After beating Miami in the season opener, they have lost to NC State and Clemson. They will be very lucky to keep their ranking at all.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
 
Ted Koppel Puts Mafia in Foreign Policy
In another stark reminder about who should and should not be making foreign policy decisions, newscaster Ted Koppel suggests that it's okay for Iran to have nuclear weapons:
The likelihood that more restrictive sanctions will either make it through the United Nations or dissuade Iran from darting down the path toward nuclear technology is about as dim as that of a popular uprising among the people under 30 who make up 70 percent of Iran's population.

Many of Iran's young adults - especially the well- educated, English-speaking ones who cross the path of a visiting American journalist - are frustrated by the puritanical nature of Islamic law.

They dismiss their president and ours as deserving each other, denounce the corruption of the mullahs and speak with surprising openness about confiscated satellite dishes, blocked Internet sites, the closing of newspapers and the jailing and mistreatment of dissidents. But the young malcontents appear nowhere close to staging a revolution.

Perhaps that may change after sanctions are imposed and the US more actively funds resistance groups instead of the absurd strategy of direct engagement--but I digress. Here's Koppel's solution:

What, then, can the United States do to prevent Iran from developing nuclear technology? Little or nothing. Washington should instead bow to the inevitable.

"You insist on having nuclear weapons," we should say. "Go ahead. It's a terrible idea, but we can't stop you. We would, however, like your leaders to view the enclosed DVD of 'The Godfather.' Please pay particular attention to the scene in which Don Corleone makes grudging peace with a man - the head of a rival crime family - who ordered the killing of his oldest son."

In that scene, Don Corleone says, "I forgo my vengeance for my dead son, for the common good. But I have selfish reasons." The welfare of his youngest son, Michael, is on his mind.

"I am a superstitious man," he continues. "And so if some unlucky accident should befall my youngest son, if some police officer should accidentally shoot him, or if he should hang himself in his cell, or if my son is struck by a bolt of lightening, then I will blame some of the people here. That I could never forgive."

If Iran is bound and determined to have nuclear weapons, let it.

The elimination of American opposition on this issue would open the way to genuine normalization between our two nations. It might even convince the Iranians that their country can flourish without nuclear weapons.

But this should also be made clear to Tehran: If a dirty bomb explodes in Milwaukee, or some other nuclear device detonates in Baltimore or Wichita, if Israel or Egypt or Saudi Arabia should fall victim to a nuclear "accident," Iran should understand that the U.S. government will not search around for the perpetrator. The return address will be predetermined, and it will be somewhere in Iran.

Mr. Koppel, are you suggesting that if a nuclear weapon (dirty or not) were detonated inside the United States, we should indiscriminately kill a large portion of the civilian population of Iran--even if they were not the responsible party? If that's your policy recommendation, stick with reading the news off of your teleprompter and leave the foreign policy making to more intelligent people.
 
Mid-Day Mets Playoff Goodness
The Mets start their second season in a mere hour and a half. Unfortunately, that second season may be without el Duque, who injured his calf during practice. John Maine will get the start today instead, so hope for the best Met fans. While this could not have come at a worse time for the Mets--Pedro is already out until next year. We have to suck it up and hope our bats get the job done.

Base10, alas, has to finish a paper in European Economic History. But he'll catch the game, too.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
 
Academic Pursuits
Base10 has to pursue academic activities today. He must finish a ton of reading and begin work on a paper due on Thursday. This is in addition to his teaching duties, but that can wait for another day. In any event, I will have to wait until later in the week to complain about the Democrats.
 
Weekend Sports Wrap
It was an interesting weekend. Base10 is still, of course, smarting from the Jets loss on Sunday to Indy. In spite of the loss, even Jets detractors must admit that they were in the game until the last second. I do like a team that fights and this attitude certainly bodes well for the future. Also, Chad Pennington's arm looks good and I like the level of conditioning that the team has shown. Final: 31-28 and the Jets do cover a rather generous 9 point line.

Last night's Monday night football game was disheartening for Green Bay fans. Up until halftime, the Packers had kept themselves in it, and even retained the lead after the Eagles failed to score on a fake field goal in the last second of the half. There is truth about the old saying that each half is a different game. In the second half, the Eagles proceeded to rout the Pack, eventually winning 31-9. Ouch!

In baseball news, the ALDS and NLDS starts tonight. The Yankees play tonight at 8PM. Click here for a preview. The Mets ended the regular season by sweeping the Nationals and start their post season run tomorrow at 4PM against the Dodgers. Old-time Brooklyn fans would be pleased. Click here for a preview.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
 
Sunday's Picks

This week, Base10 and Co. take the following:
Jets + 9
Ravens +2.5
Vikings +1
Titans +9
Chiefs -7
Saints +7
Falcons -7
Dolphins -3.5
Rams -5.5
Pats +6
Jaguars -3
Raiders +3 (Hey, they gotta win one day).
Bears -3
Packers +11

Base10 and Co. went eight for 12 last week (two pushes) bringing us up to twenty-four on the year so far. Not too shabby...



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