Thursday, September 30, 2010

Of course, we already knew this...

James Taranto:

Back then, the [NY] Times favored disregarding the law in order to "give New Jersey's voters a competitive race." Today, the Times complains about a cynical but perfectly legal maneuver whose effect will be to give New York voters a competitive race. Is there any way to reconcile these positions other than by concluding that the Times is a cynically partisan institution?
Since the Times is obviously a cynically partisan institution, the question doesn't require much analysis.  The answer, of course, is "No." 

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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Tennessee Court Makes It Easier to Sue Employers Over Illegal Firings

Tennessee Court Makes It Easier to Sue Employers Over Illegal Firings

In a decision that some legal observers found surprising, the Tennessee Supreme Court has reversed precedent and made it easier for workers to sue their employers when they believe they were fired illegally [LB - whether they were or not].

The court ruled 3-2 last week that employers must prove that workers' claims of discrimination or retaliation are false or else face a trial, according to The Tennessean.
Yeah, that'll help. Anyone want to speculate as to whether this kind of decision might lead to a) more hiring, b) less hiring or c) no impact on hiring decisions?

Tough question, right?

Not. But hey, they're just businesses - who cares if they're assumed guilty until proven innocent?

Seriously, does anyone benefit, other than lawyers?

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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

GOP 'Pledge to America' Looks Unlikely to Inspire - Newsweek

Newsweek (no surprise there) offers possibly the dumbest piece of political commentary ever committed to paper (or pixel).
Not so harmless, however, is the promise to require every bill to be certified as constitutional before it is voted on. We have a mechanism for assessing the constitutionality of legislation, which is the independent judiciary. An extraconstitutional attempt to limit the powers of Congress is dangerous even as a mere suggestion, and it constitutes an encroachment on the judiciary.
Simply mind-boggling. One would think that it would be at least benign, if not actually beneficial, to have Congress think about the constitutionality of legislation before passing it, rather than doing whatever the hell they feel like doing and passing the buck to the courts to protect the constitution, a task at which they've notably failed on many occasions. And it's difficult to see how a pledge by a group of Congresspeople to refrain from passing unconstitutional legislation is somehow "dangerous as a mere suggestion." Indeed, the idea that Congress would not assess the constitutionality of legislation before passing it is a far more dangerous suggestion, as that institution has demonstrated. Repeatedly. And the idea that there's any conceivable way to read this as a "encroachment on the judiciary" is just silly. One might as easily say that a bank robber's decision to retire from a life of crime somehow constitutes "an encroachment" on the police or an obese person's diet is "an encroachment" on McDonald's.

As to the idea that the "mechanism for assessing the constitutionality of legislation...is the independent judiciary," one wonders whether the author is aware of the oath of office that each member of Congress takes:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
As I say, the column was exactly what you'd expect from Newsweek. I included the link, but I'd have to advise you not to click and follow it. I read it so you don't have to...

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Monday, September 27, 2010

Monday Pythagorean Report - 9/27/2010

Another 3-3 week as they sprint to the finish line...

  • So, if the Red Sox win their last six, and the Yankees lose their last seven, they'll have a one-game playoff for the Wild Card, right? Anyone know what the sports books in Las Vegas are offering as odds on that?
  • I don't want anyone to misinterpret the following comment, which is just an observation of a noteworthy confluence of events. I do NOT think that there should be more Wild Card teams, nor that the playoff teams should be selected differently. I don't have a problem with the division set up, nor do I think a third place team should be in the post-season, nor do I think that the Boston Red Sox have any right to a playoff spot this year. Not complaining, not whining - they weren't good enough, tough season, that's life. OK? No complaints. But I will note this interesting juxtaposition for all of the Theo-bashers crying that the Sox front office didn't put together a good team - the Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers each won on Saturday. They each finished the day with an 86-68 record. The Red Sox were playing out the string, having not yet been mathematically eliminated, but practically and essentially eliminated two weeks earlier. The Rangers clinched a division title and poured champagne.
  • The season would have been different without the injuries, but that hasn't been the sole source of problems. There are a lot of lost wins on the balance sheets of Messrs. Beckett, Lackey and, most notably, Papelbon.
  • Red Sox Player of the Week - Victor Martinez, who led the team with a .455/.571/.636/1.207 line, beats out honorable mention Ryan Kalish, who hit .400/.500/.600/1.100 and stole a couple of bases.
  • Red Sox Pitcher of the Week - Nothing spectacular, but Jon Lester was outstanding, allowing no runs and just two hits in seven innings of work in New York.



AL Pythagorean Projection Report - 9/27/2010
ProjectedActual
R/G(rank)RA/G(rank)Pythagorean(rank)WLWLLuck
New York5.31(1)4.21(4)0.604(1)94629363-1
Tampa Bay5.08(2)4.07(3)0.6(2)936293620
Minnesota4.88(5)4.03(2)0.587(3)916492631
Texas4.9(4)4.24(5)0.566(4)88678768-1
Boston5.06(3)4.57(10)0.546(5)857086691
Chicago4.63(7)4.36(7)0.528(6)827383721
Oakland4.06(11)3.92(1)0.516(7)80757778-3
Detroit4.73(6)4.6(11)0.513(8)797680751
Toronto4.61(8)4.53(9)0.508(9)797680751
Los Angeles4.22(9)4.38(8)0.483(10)758075800
Cleveland3.96(12)4.69(12)0.424(11)66906591-1
Kansas City4.14(10)5.31(14)0.388(12)609563923
Baltimore3.81(13)4.95(13)0.382(13)599661942
Seattle3.17(14)4.26(6)0.368(14)579859962

Top 5 projections (using current winning %)
New York9765
Tampa Bay9765
Minnesota9666
Texas9171
Boston9072

Top 5 projections (starting with today's record, using Pythagorean winning %)
New York9765
Tampa Bay9765
Minnesota9666
Texas9171
Boston9072

Standings for the week
ProjectedActual
R/G(rank)RA/G(rank)Pythagorean(rank)WLWLLuck
Detroit7.17(1)4.67(9)0.687(1)42511
Tampa Bay6(2)4.43(7)0.635(2)43430
Toronto4.17(8)3.17(2)0.623(3)42511
Texas5.14(4)4.29(6)0.583(4)43430
Boston4.83(6)4.83(10)0.5(5)33330
Baltimore4(10)4.17(4)0.481(6)3324-1
Chicago3(13)3.17(2)0.475(7)33421
Minnesota5.33(3)5.67(13)0.472(8)33330
Cleveland4.14(9)4.43(7)0.47(9)34340
Oakland4.71(7)5.14(11)0.46(10)34340
Los Angeles2.67(14)3(1)0.446(11)3324-1
New York5.14(4)6.57(14)0.39(12)34340
Seattle3.17(12)4.17(4)0.377(13)24240
Kansas City3.86(11)5.43(12)0.349(14)25250

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Friday, September 24, 2010

Nudists and swingers at war in France's 'Naked City' - Telegraph

Actions. Consequences. You want to have a city where public nudity is allowed, permitted, even encouraged?

What could possibly go wrong?

Nudists and swingers at war in France's 'Naked City'

Tensions in the town of Cap d'Agde, which is known as France's "Naked City" thanks to its large nudist population, have risen after locals complained that the nudist quarter had been overrun by raunchy hotels and that children had been confronted with people indulging in sexual acts in public, according to the Independent.
...
Traditional nudists support the move. One told the paper that they had moved to the area because they wanted "a natural life" but that they had ended up living "surrounded by wild animals". 

The idea that you could have a "large nudist population" and not end up with "people indulging in sexual acts in public" is absolutely typical leftist "thought." Idiocy of the highest order, on par with claiming that you can add millions of people to the insurance rolls and cut insurance costs at the same time...

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Thursday, September 23, 2010

A Devastating and Depressing Portrait of Obama

Good piece from Commentary:
Mr. Obama seems to have his priorities upside down — largely indifferent to those areas he’s responsible for and hyper-active in areas he’s not.
- Pete Wehner

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

"Send it in!"

I love this story. I love this effort.

One of the things that's happened over the years is that the government class has come to look upon the citizens as chattel, much as the old feudal masters looked on their, well, chattel. But it has always maintained the fiction that it believed in "citizens" and doing what was best for them. All usurpations of power and authority were done "for the children" or "for the elderly" or "for public safety" or "for the common good." And always done in service of the fiction that the government was doing things by and for and in the name of "the people."

So I love that someone's actually proposed, in a proposal that's now gone public, something that strips away all the veneer.
UK Proposes All Paychecks Go to the State First
The UK's tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and pay the employees by bank transfer.

The proposal by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) stresses the need for employers to provide real-time information to the government so that it can monitor all payments and make a better assessment of whether the correct tax is being paid.

Currently employers withhold tax and pay the government, providing information at the end of the year, a system know as Pay as You Earn (PAYE). There is no option for those employees to refuse withholding and individually file a tax return at the end of the year.

If the real-time information plan works, it further proposes that employers hand over employee salaries to the government first.

Hey, you know that they already look at it as their money, because they talk about how some of you have already "made enough money," and about how tax cuts "cost the government money." Let's be up-front about it - the government gets everything, and you get some back by sufferance, if they feel like it. There's an old joke version of the income tax form which has two lines:
  1. How much money did you make?
  2. Send it in!

Someone in the UK has taken it seriously.

In any event, this is the kind of thing that might awaken even the most well-intentioned of well-intentioned non-hard-left "I'm-liberal-because-conservatives-are-mean-to-people-and-I'm-not-mean" compatriots from his slumber. So I love it.

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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

But don't you dare question his patriotism...

"Mexicans" Were Here "Long Before America Was Even An Idea"
"Long before America was even an idea, this land of plenty was home to many peoples. The British and French, the Dutch and Spanish, to Mexicans, to countless Indian tribes. We all shared the same land," President Obama told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Do you suppose that in 2012 we could elect a President who, you know, likes America? Or is that too extreme a concept?

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Monday, September 20, 2010

Monday Pythagorean Report - 9/20/2010

For one brief moment, there were delusions of Boston still being in it. Then Lackey took the hill...

  • When the game against Toronto started on Friday night, the Red Sox, despite all that has happened, still "had their destiny in their own hands." Entirely. They were six behind the Yankees, with six games remaining head-to-head. It wasn't a realistic hope, but it was a hope. That didn't last long.
  • Microcosm of a season: Ryan Kalish, in Boston early despite not being quite ready, because of injuries to starters, singles on a nine-pitch at-bat with one out in the bottom of the ninth and the Red Sox trailing by one. He then gets picked off. Three pitches later, Victor Martinez hits a ball off the wall which is misplayed by the center and left fielders and bounces all the way to right center. Victor, running like Big Papi with Mo Vaughn on his shoulders, reaches third. Adrian Beltre grounds out to short. Beckett loses again, as they give up another unearned run. The winning run scored from second. On a bunt. This was the epitome of the 2010 Boston Red Sox.
  • One word description of the 2010 season: frustration.
  • Red Sox Player of the Week - Again, it's just about the only starter remaining, Adrian Beltre, who hit .421/.500/.789/1.289 for the week.
  • Red Sox Un-Lackey Pitcher of the Week - Not John Lackey. No, this one goes to Jon Lester, again. Lester, who started twice this week, allowed only one run in 15 innings of work.

AL Pythagorean Projection Report - 9/20/2010
ProjectedActual
R/G(rank)RA/G(rank)Pythagorean(rank)WLWLLuck
New York5.32(1)4.1(4)0.617(1)92579059-2
Tampa Bay5.04(3)4.05(3)0.598(2)895989590
Minnesota4.87(5)3.96(2)0.593(3)886189601
Texas4.89(4)4.24(5)0.565(4)84648365-1
Boston5.07(2)4.56(9)0.548(5)826783661
Chicago4.7(6)4.41(7)0.529(6)797079700
Oakland4.03(11)3.86(1)0.52(7)77717474-3
Toronto4.62(8)4.58(10)0.504(8)757475740
Detroit4.63(7)4.6(11)0.503(9)757475740
Los Angeles4.28(9)4.44(8)0.484(10)727773761
Cleveland3.95(12)4.7(12)0.422(11)63866287-1
Kansas City4.16(10)5.3(14)0.39(12)589061873
Baltimore3.81(13)4.99(13)0.379(13)569359903
Seattle3.17(14)4.26(6)0.368(14)559457922

Top 5 projections (using current winning %)
New York9864
Tampa Bay9765
Minnesota9765
Texas9171
Boston9072

Top 5 projections (starting with today's record, using Pythagorean winning %)
New York9864
Tampa Bay9765
Minnesota9765
Texas9171
Boston9072

Standings for the week
ProjectedActual
R/G(rank)RA/G(rank)Pythagorean(rank)WLWLLuck
Texas6(3)3.2(2)0.76(1)4132-1
Boston6.17(2)3.83(5)0.705(2)42420
Minnesota5.5(4)3.67(3)0.677(3)42420
Los Angeles4.17(9)2.83(1)0.669(4)4233-1
New York4.83(6)3.67(3)0.624(5)4233-1
Baltimore4.67(7)4.17(7)0.552(6)33421
Cleveland4.67(7)4.33(9)0.534(7)33421
Kansas City5.33(5)5(11)0.529(8)33330
Detroit7(1)6.8(13)0.513(9)32320
Tampa Bay3.67(11)4(6)0.46(10)33330
Oakland3.33(13)4.17(7)0.399(11)24331
Toronto3.67(11)6(12)0.289(12)24240
Seattle2.17(14)4.5(10)0.208(13)15241
Chicago3.83(10)8.33(14)0.194(14)1506-1

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Monday, September 13, 2010

Monday Pythagorean Report - 9/13/2010

4-2, 3-3, 2-4, 3-3 - the beat goes on as the season winds down...


  • As an old football coach used to say, "you are what your record says you are." This is what the Red Sox are right now - a .500 team without enough offense.
  • Clay Buchholz wasn't really a Cy Young candidate, because he's so short on innings pitched compared to some other top starters, including Felix Hernandez, who has been better at basically everything you want a pitcher to do. But he was in the conversation. That conversation ended in an 11-batter span on Friday night.
  • All feats are colored by context. In a different context, there might be praise and accolades for the Boston bullpen which threw seven scoreless, 3-hit innings on Friday night. As they were down 5-0 when they started, and the offense never came close to plating a run, it was just another blah mop-up job.
  • In a different context, we might look at taking 2-of-3 from the Rays as a pivotal series win. As it is, not so much...
  • Red Sox Player of the Week - Adrian Beltre, who hit .381/.500/.762/1.262 on the week. Honorable mention to Josh Reddick, who hit .500/.500/.700/1.200 and created more runs per out, albeit in half the at-bats. (Runs Created takes note of the fact that 4 of Beltre's 5 walks were intentional.)
  • Red Sox Pitcher of the Week - In the absence of any great starts or dominant relief appearances, this goes to Scott Atchison, who threw 5 2/3 innings of scoreless relief in 3 outings, allowing 1 hit and striking out 4.



AL Pythagorean Projection Report - 9/13/2010
ProjectedActual
R/G(rank)RA/G(rank)Pythagorean(rank)WLWLLuck
New York5.34(1)4.12(4)0.616(1)88558756-1
Tampa Bay5.1(2)4.06(3)0.603(2)865686560
Minnesota4.84(5)3.97(2)0.589(3)845985581
Texas4.85(4)4.27(7)0.558(4)806380630
Chicago4.73(6)4.24(5)0.55(5)796479640
Boston5.02(3)4.59(11)0.541(6)776679642
Oakland4.06(11)3.85(1)0.524(7)74687171-3
Toronto4.66(7)4.52(10)0.514(8)737073700
Detroit4.55(8)4.52(9)0.503(9)727272720
Los Angeles4.29(9)4.5(8)0.477(10)687570732
Cleveland3.92(12)4.71(12)0.417(11)60835885-2
Kansas City4.11(10)5.32(14)0.384(12)558758843
Seattle3.21(14)4.25(6)0.374(13)548955881
Baltimore3.77(13)5.02(13)0.372(14)539055882

Top 5 projections (using current winning %)
New York9963
Tampa Bay9864
Minnesota9666
Texas9171
Chicago8973

Top 5 projections (starting with today's record, using Pythagorean winning %)
New York9963
Tampa Bay9864
Minnesota9666
Texas9171
Chicago8973

Standings for the week
ProjectedActual
R/G(rank)RA/G(rank)Pythagorean(rank)WLWLLuck
Minnesota4.33(8)2.33(1)0.756(1)51510
Oakland4.5(6)3.33(5)0.634(3)42420
Baltimore4.17(9)3.33(5)0.601(4)42420
Texas5.14(3)4.29(7)0.583(5)43521
Tampa Bay8.33(1)7(14)0.579(6)33330
Cleveland2.67(14)2.33(1)0.561(7)33330
Los Angeles3.5(11)3.17(3)0.546(8)33421
Boston6(2)6(11)0.5(9)33330
Kansas City4.5(6)6.17(12)0.36(10)2415-1
Toronto4.57(5)6.43(13)0.349(11)25341
New York3.33(12)4.83(8)0.336(12)2415-1
Chicago4(10)5.86(10)0.332(13)25341
Seattle3.17(13)4.83(8)0.316(14)2415-1

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Sunday, September 12, 2010

Drummers Call - OSV

A few pictures from Saturday's Drummers Call at Old Sturbridge Village....


Click the link for more of them...

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Palin and the Left’s Status-Anxiety

Excellent Shannon Love piece on Palin and the Left’s Status-Anxiety.
That is why leftists see Palin as a genuine and significant threat of unusual magnitude. In the emotional thinking of leftists, she is a personal threat to everything each individual leftist has attained in life. They feel a sincere, visceral sense of danger about her because she attacks the very core of their egos. They feel the same hatred towards Palin that the European upper classes felt towards the upstart middle-class. They feel the same hatred that poor whites felt towards non-whites. They feel that way for the same reasons. If she succeeds, worse, if she is right, then they become nobodies.

As long as she is viewed as a significant political figure, the left’s obsession with Palin will never wane because it does not spring from rational roots. She threatens something too deep and too profound in a political subculture built around the belief that a small percentage of human beings have a vastly superior understanding of the world compared to all the rest.

Read the whole thing. It explains a lot.

And there were a lot of the same factors in play in the left's dislike for Ronald Reagan, too...

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Friday, September 10, 2010

Our Debt Is More Than All the Money in the World

Our Debt Is More Than All the Money in the World
The optimistic view is that our outstanding obligations amount to more than all of the money in the world.

I hate linking things like this, but it's important. I hate reading things like this, but it's important. We need to understand how much of what we'll produce in the next decade we've already consumed. And we need to address it.

And we cannot seem to take even baby steps to address the issue without people freaking out about "starving the children" or "putting the elderly out in the street..."

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Governor Christie Responds To Teacher During Town Hall

In New Jersey, of all places, there's a Governor doing his job the right way...

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Tuesday, September 07, 2010

An open letter to Senator Lisa Murkowski

AP Exclusive: Murkowski says she's not a quitter

A week after conceding the tight GOP primary to Joe Miller, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she's not a quitter and is "still in this game."

Dear Senator Murkowski,

It's not a game. It's an election, as required to staff the government in this democratic republic of ours. You ran the race.

You lost.

Get over yourself.

The Republic survived for well over 200 years before you set foot in Washington, DC, and it will survive long after you've taken your last footstep in Washington. You are not indispensible. The voters of Alaska have decided to dispense with you. The United States of America survived the departures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln from the seat of government, I daresay it can survive the departure of Lisa Murkowski. Go out, live your life, and stop sucking at the taxpayer teat.

You lost. The voters have spoken. They told you to go away.

Listen to them...

Sincerely,
- Lyford

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Obama's 'pivot' to the economy comes far too late | Washington Examiner

Good Byron York piece in the Washington Examiner this morning...

Obama's 'pivot' to the economy comes far too late

White House officials insist these are serious policy initiatives that are not being put forth just so Obama can say he's doing something about the economy. But that leads to the question: If these are such great ideas, why wasn't the president pushing them earlier?

"They've had nearly two years to think about it, and they've come up with a Democrat caricature: tax and spend," says one high-ranking GOP Hill aide.

But even if Obama's proposals were good policy, it's not just too late for them to have any significant economic effect by November. It's also too late for them to have any significant political benefit for Democrats. Large segments of the public believe Obama and his party focused on the wrong issue -- health care -- for too long in 2009 and 2010, and when they did pass a big economic measure, the $814 billion stimulus, they got it wrong. That will be a hard perception to change by Nov. 2.

"The die has been cast in many voters' minds," says another Hill Republican deeply involved in the midterm effort. "People believe the stimulus was a failure. By trying to 'pivot,' Democrats can't all of a sudden hide from their signature jobs effort. After all, didn't we just have the recovery summer?"

"People believe the stimulus was a failure." Now why would people think that? How could people possibly see the pouring of billions of dollars into sustaining Democratic interest groups and state and local public officials' coffers while the unemployment rate skyrockets as a failure? The stimulus has done exactly what most of us expected it to do, hasn't it?

Anyway, it's a good piece - read it all...

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"The recovery begins November 2..."

Recovery Summer?



Again, some of the RNC donor dollars are being spent well...

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Monday, September 06, 2010

Monday Pythagorean Report - 9/6/2010

[b]Season To Date:[/b]
[pre]
AL Pythagorean Projection Report - 9/6/2010

Team R/G (rank) RA/G (rank) Pyth (rank) proj w act w luck
[red]New York 5.423 (1) 4.088 (4) 0.627 (1) 86 86 0[/red]
Tampa Bay 4.956 (3) 3.926 (2) 0.605 (2) 82 83 1
Minnesota 4.861 (4) 4.044 (3) 0.583 (3) 80 80 0
Chicago 4.772 (6) 4.162 (5) 0.562 (4) 76 76 0
Texas 4.838 (5) 4.272 (7) 0.557 (5) 76 75 -1
[blue]Boston 4.978 (2) 4.533 (9) 0.543 (6) 74 76 2[/blue]
Toronto 4.669 (7) 4.426 (8) 0.524 (7) 71 70 -1
Oakland 4.037 (11) 3.868 (1) 0.520 (8) 71 67 -4
Detroit 4.518 (8) 4.584 (11) 0.493 (9) 68 68 0
Los Angeles 4.321 (9) 4.562 (10) 0.475 (10) 65 66 1
Cleveland 3.978 (12) 4.818 (12) 0.413 (11) 57 55 -2
Kansas City 4.088 (10) 5.279 (14) 0.385 (12) 52 57 5
Seattle 3.212 (14) 4.226 (6) 0.377 (13) 52 54 2
Baltimore 3.752 (13) 5.095 (13) 0.364 (14) 50 51 1


Top 5 projections (using current winning %)
[red]New York 102 60 [/red]
Tampa Bay 99 63
Minnesota 95 67
Chicago 91 71
[blue]Boston 90 72 [/blue]

Top 5 projections (starting with today's record, using Pythagorean winning %)
[red]New York 102 60 [/red]
Tampa Bay 99 63
Minnesota 95 67
Chicago 91 71
[blue]Boston 90 72 [/blue]
[/pre]
.


[b]Past Week:[/b]
[pre]
AL Pythagorean Projection Report - 9/6/2010

Team R/G (rank) RA/G (rank) Pyth (rank) proj w act w luck
[red]New York 6.571 (1) 3.714 (3) 0.740 (1) 5 6 1[/red]
Chicago 5.500 (3) 3.333 (2) 0.714 (2) 4 6 2
Minnesota 6.167 (2) 4.333 (6) 0.656 (3) 4 5 1
Detroit 5.000 (6) 4.333 (6) 0.565 (4) 3 3 0
Toronto 5.167 (5) 5.000 (9) 0.515 (5) 3 2 -1
Baltimore 5.333 (4) 5.333 (11) 0.500 (6) 3 3 0
[blue]Boston 4.000 (9) 4.667 (8) 0.430 (7) 3 2 -1[/blue]
Seattle 2.429 (14) 2.857 (1) 0.426 (8) 3 3 0
Tampa Bay 4.667 (7) 5.500 (13) 0.425 (9) 3 3 0
Texas 4.667 (7) 5.833 (14) 0.399 (10) 2 2 0
Cleveland 3.286 (12) 4.143 (5) 0.396 (11) 3 2 -1
Los Angeles 3.000 (13) 3.833 (4) 0.390 (12) 2 3 1
Kansas City 4.000 (9) 5.333 (11) 0.371 (13) 2 2 0
Oakland 3.714 (11) 5.286 (10) 0.344 (14) 2 2 0
[/pre]
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Two and four and playing out the string...

  • I'm guessing that even the hard-code rose-colored glasses wearers have now given up any hopes of the 2010 Red Sox playing playoff baseball. The sweep at the hands of the White Sox was about as excruciating as it gets, as they failed to get any offensive support for a couple of decent pitching performances, and gave up runs with untimely pitching and defensive failures.
  • Red Sox Player of the Week - Adrian Beltre, whose .333/.385/.625/1.010 wasn't quite as good as Bill Hall's .429/.467/.571/1.038, but covered almost twice as many plate appearances.
  • Red Sox Pitcher of the Week - No one. Okajima allowed no runs in three outings, but only pitched 1 2/3 and left a mess for Papelbon to clean up on Sunday. Lackey only allowed one earned run in seven innings, but allowed two more unearned in a Boston loss. Beckett only allowed three earned runs in two starts but allowed three more unearned. No one was worthy, so there's no prize awarded.

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Wednesday, September 01, 2010

"What the press found superlative about its Katrina reporting..."

Instapundit, correct again:

What the press found superlative about its Katrina reporting was the realization — very comforting post-RatherGate — that if they all agreed on a storyline and pushed it, they could still move the polls despite the alternative media. That the reporting was crap didn’t matter at all.

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The President's Oval Office Address

As I was on the road while he was giving it, I have not yet had the opportunity to watch it, so cannot comment yet. You can be sure that I'll bring some detailed analysis as soon as I've reviewed the video.




(It probably would be best not to hold your breath waiting...)

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