U.S. Plan for Iraq Is Said to Include Attack on 3 Sides
How do journalists get a hold of this stuff? I still (rather naively) hold onto the ideal of the media being an objective messenger, a last-line of defense in a free society. It does that (sometimes) but investigative reporting doesn't pay the bills. The only commodity the media has to sell is information, and in the process of trying to stay afloat financially, they seek out more things to grab our attention, and that's where the cracks form for objectivity to slip through.

Goodbye to Teddy Ballgame
There is something appropriate about Ted Williams passing away so close to the day his country celebrates its independence. As much as he was a favorite among casual fans and made pimply statgeeks like me so giddy, his 4+ years of service time in the Air Force during the World Wars are much more impressive. Much more impressive than being my favorite all-time baseball player, with Charley "Old Hoss" Radbourn a close second.

Accusations hurled at hot dog contest
I dunno. The title says it all, really.

Happy 4th to everybody. Remember all the freedoms and liberties you've enjoyed as you snack on the grilled food.

The Manualist Page
"Manualism is the art of producing music by squeezing one's hands together. It takes many years of practice and even then is still quite difficult to control. It may be one of the hardest instruments in the world to play. The number of people who are performing manualism on stage is extremely few. See also hand farting."

I think my buddy Todd was looking for some new shoes for those crazy parties he throws.

Go Ahead and Sleep on It -- It's Good for You
I've been telling people this for years. Sheesh.

Baseball fans have been hearing lots of huffing and puffing about reducing the number of teams, but it looks like it won't happen. For those of you not keeping score at home, contraction would have to eliminate the same number of teams from the National and American leagues. Le'Expos de Montreal have been earmarked in the NL, but no viable option lies in the AL. You're thinking the Tampa Devil Rays, aren't you? MLB, I and a million other intelligent baseball fans would agree, but some Floridian senator has promised to raise hell with the legality of baseball's anti-trust exemption, and Czar Bud and his cronies don't want to get into that (to save the Devil Rays? WHY). All that to say, contraction's not gonna happen, at least not next year.

Occam's razor would tell us that the solution would be to move the Expos to a more marketable and hospitable location, like the DC area. That's not a bad idea, but as I was trying to get to sleep the other night, I thought it'dbe interesting to move the team to Mexico.

I'm not fully up on the the economic state of things in Mexico, but it has several advantages over Canada.
1) There is a baseball heritage already in place. Southern teams like the Rangers and Dodgers have a huge following, and Mexico already has its own baseball league.
2) A good 30-40% of the players have Hispanic roots. Would the next generation of Hispanic ballers want to grow up playing for the Mexico City Expos, just like kids here want to play for the Yankees? I don't know if this would lead to some sort of scouting advantage for prospects, but it couldn't hurt.
3) It's just the kind of adventurous thing that can pump some new interest in the sport (which probably is the reason why it'll never happen). Baseball is looking to compete with the NFL for new markets, and it has a natural inroads into Mexico that the NFL doesn't. Of course, the NFL also has owners that conscientously try to improve the sport, knowing that is the way to more money in their pockets.

That's all the sports for today. I'm thinking about new music/DVDs to buy. Suggestions are welcome in the comment box. Hopefully none of you will suggest a CD-ROM with 50 crane accident photos for me.

Tell all your premillenialist friends about the Messiah Cam. Or maybe you want to tell them about Unofficial Celebrity Bra Sizes. ("Unofficial"? And I'm irritated to not find Phil Mickelson in there. What kind of index is this.)

It's been mighty hot out. Just think how much better it would be if you were cooling off with Clay Anderson's favorite beverage.

I find lots of stupid crap on the Internet, but it gets outweighed by the cool stuff, like turntables. But then again, the stupid crap is more fun.

Did you ever notice that your skin starts to smell a certain way when you've been out in the sun for awhile? I think that is actually the smell of summer. It sounds gross, but it's not all that bad. No worse than the smell of the ocean being the smell of rotting vegetation from its depths.

What is it about grilled food that makes you want to come back for more and more? I indulged all of my vices on Saturday night (well, not all), starting off with a hearty steak dinner at the Chophouse with some new best friends I met the previous weekend (no women present, of course), and topped off the evening with cigars and cognac, shooting the breeze with the fellas about Life and Important Things. It was a moment of perfect contentment. Good food, good friends, good conversation. I think if I was actually working, and my spates of fun were pushed further apart by a busy working schedule, then the night might have been more satisfying, but that's splitting hairs.

Do you love the Beatles? Do you love dogs? Now you can love them both at the same time!

This is one of those things where you read it and initially think, Hmm, that's cool, but the more you think about it, you realize that it's really not. Much like these animal hats. If I ever have children, and you buy those for them, you'll stop being my friend and I don't know you.

Did you ever want to really stick it to the President? Here's the guy that did.

Ever wonder what to get Jill or Valerie for their birthdays? I offer a possibility.

This is my weekly shot at evangelical stupid culture. Don't get me wrong; the Biblical facts presented are true, the illustrations can probably be back-checked. What offends me is that this is a mentally and emotionally lazy approach to evangelism. You can possibly motivate the believing masses by fear, but certainly not the unconverted. Simply stating a Christian fact is not enough, is never enough to sway the hearts of the unbelieving. In the economy of the heart, simple arguments of logical facts and progressions are not enough. The heart is too often above and detached from the logic of debate and counterargument. What was that sound? I think it was the soapbox breaking under me.