Monday, April 30, 2007

Sox Schedule Oddity

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are hot. They're scoring runs like the Yankees and winning even more games (that tells you how bad the Yanks pitching has been this month).

So will the Devil Ray bats be able to knock the Sox fab five rotation around? We won't find out until July. That's right: the first half of the season features not a game between the Sox and the divisional whipping boy. After that, of course, Sox players will need a second home in St. Pete: the two teams are to play six times in July, six times in August, and six times in September.

If the Rays continue to win, maybe they'll have to play the Sox six times in October as well. But don't count on it.

Religion and the Candidate

Is America ready for a president who is not a mainline Protestant or Catholic?

The New York Times describes the candidate's church: they do not follow Christian orthodoxy on many points, but describe themselves as 'Christian' nonetheless. The candidate openly quotes scripture, and identifies with Christian voters. Most disturbingly for orthodox believers, perhaps, is that the church interprets scripture racially, with a unique place given to one race (and it's not the Jews).

The candidate, of course, is Senator Barack Obama, who is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Like many mainline denominations, Trinity supports ordination of women and membership of practicing homosexuals. Its gospel is heavily social and its pastor has been a guest of Fidel Castro and Muammar Gaddafi, and the Times reports on his particular brand of liberation theology:
Mr. Wright preached black liberation theology, which interprets the Bible as the story of the struggles of black people, whom [sic] by virtue of their oppression are better able to understand Scripture than those who have suffered less.
The Times then quotes a professor at U. of Chicago who helpfully says that this isn't really racist because white people just don't understand.

Perhaps not. And if Mr. Obama accepts this narrative of history and the premise that whites simply cannot understand black people, perhaps he should abandon his campaign to seek an office representing a nation that is home to more than 200 million white people.

Also, the Times should be somewhat less surprised than it is that the far-left Obama found religion at Trinity after years of resisting evangelism by the many other black pastors with whom he worked. The pluralist Obama had found a church that told him that earth is more important than heaven, that blacks are better than whites, and that his personal behavior is not admissible evidence in the final judgment. Finding God is surprising, because God is utterly different than man and demands much of him. Making a God in one's own image is much less surprising - Nietzche's phrase aptly captures the foolish religions that proliferate in a postmodern world, as varied as the images of those they reflect.

April

From the Soxaholix:
Now that we got that out of the way can I just say that the only othah seasons in which the Red Sox led the league or division by three games after the first month of playing were 1904, 1918 and 2004.
And a memo to the Red Sox: don't have another post-Yankees minislump like last week. Believe it or not, games against the AL West count in the standings, too.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Tenet's Puzzle

In his terse style, Drudge reports on a new 'tell-all' book from former CIA Director George Tenet:
BOOK: Tenet expresses puzzlement that al-Qaida has not sent 'suicide bombers to cause chaos in a half-dozen American shopping malls on any given day'... He writes: 'al-Qaida is here and waiting'
Tenet can't figure out why Al-Qaeda hasn't hit American targets again. Hmm, let's think about this. They hit us in 1993; we did nothing. They hit us in 1998; we did very little. They hit us in 2000; we did nothing. Then they hit us in 2001; and we responded with a long war against the Al-Qaeda structure, its friends, and its fellow travelers.

At this point, Al-Qaeda wants badly to win in Iraq and to carve out a statelet in Afghanistan or Pakistan wherewith to rebuild. They can accomplish this, obviously, by killing people in Baghdad and Kabul, raising the cost of the war to the U.S. prohibitively.

Imagine if instead, Al-Qaeda blew up a shopping mall or a subway car in the U.S. That would be child's play for them. But it would also coalesce American opinion behind the war effort like never before. Sure, there would be some leftist naysayers claiming that this is proof positive that we should retreat posthaste. But the majority of the American people would be convinced that the only way we can guarantee our safety - abroad and at home - is to kill every last living jihadi.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

And So It Begins, Not With a Bang, But With a Whimper

The Brave New World is here. Two UK couples are screening their embryos for a breast-cancer-causing gene in hopes of ending a family scourge. As always, catastrophic, dehumanizing change arrives in the form of compassion.

Your homework: go watch GATTACA and read Brave New World (free online). And then have unprotected sex with your spouse to contribute to the natural propagation of the species.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

You Don't Say

Husband of Israeli diplomat shot; criminal motive suspected - Haaretz headline

Webgem

Extra Bases catches this wild pitch:
[Red Sox manager Terry] Francona said he accidentally voted for Orioles catcher Ramon Hernandez for the All-Star Game while he was logged on to the Internet trying to check on the catcher's injury.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Palestine First

Pervez Musharraf has offered to mediate between Israel and Palestine - and even visit Israel - if asked. In doing so, he mentions the oft-repeated formula for peace in the Muslim world:
The Pakistani leader suggested that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan will not be solved unless solutions for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are found first.
Most American observers of the region don't understand this. But it's obvious. Iraq is suffering from a low-scale civil war between Shia and Sunni. Afghanistan has an Islamist guerrilla movement fighting an Afghan-unity government. The common problem, as you can see, is Palestine.

I see things in broader terms than Mr. Musharraf. Solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would also probably end global warming (isn't it obvious?), and would clearly reunite the two Koreas and end world poverty.

Detailed Forecast

Today: Abundant sunshine. High 67F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
Tomorrow: Mainly sunny. High 68F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
Sunday: Abundant sunshine. Highs in the mid 60s.

Grandson of a Bitch?

Cho Seung-Hui didn't have any friends. Even among his family, apparently:
The grandfather of Cho Seung-Hui said yesterday: "Son of a bitch. It serves him right he died with his victims"... He watched Cho's sick video of himself holding a gun to his head.

[His sister Kim Yang-Sun, 85,] repeatedly referred to the killer as "son of a bitch" or "a***hole" and said his mother Kim Hyang-Yim had problems with him from infancy.
The Cho branch were not exactly the scions of the Kim family:
"We became worried that [Cho's mother] was spending too much time at home with her brothers and sisters and family and getting to old for a husband. So the family decided to force her into a blind date to find a husband. She met Cho Sung-Tae on that date."
No wonder the Chos said they wanted to come to America for "privacy".

Hat tip to Drudge.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

French Election Primer

For those of you who think all Frankish politicians are created equal, here's the 411 on the first-round presidential election our froggy friends will be protesting holding on Sunday (you didn't know there was an election? All the better!)
  • The process: Several candidates are running in what amounts to a primary. The top two vote-getters will face off in a runoff on May 6
  • The issues: The big issues in the French race are economic reform, how to deal with the Muslim immigrant population, and how to reform the Fifth Republic. More from FT.
  • The candidates from left, with recent poll numbers: various leftists (14.5) Ségolène Royal (24), François Bayrou (19.5), Nicolas Sarkozy (28), and Jean-Marie Le Pen (14).
  • The voters: are still wavering, with fully a third undecided. A French neighbor of mine - who voted absentee for Bayrou - believes votes will break in favor of his man, who would be more electable against Sarkozy than Royal.
Elections like this show the soft underbelly of European unity. Despite what seems a constant barrage of criticism for America's conservative politics from Europe, the reality is that they have parties with significant support both to the right and left of our major parties (see this BBC story). The U.S., despite what you read, is a remarkably centered country.

But Seriously, Folks

John McCain tries some stand-up comedy in South Carolina:



Stick to your talking points, Senator. This kind of thing can't end well. Hat tip to Drudge.

Global Review Daily Clicker

Click on the shaded countries for Global Review's highlighted news stories of the day.

United States of America Canada Greenland Iceland Britain Eire Mexico Central America Cuba Jamaica Lesser Antilles Colombia Ecuador Peru Venezuela Guyana, Suriname, Fr. G Brazil Uruguay Paraguay Bolivia Chile Argentina Norway Sweden Finland Denmark Germany Netherlands Belgium France Spain Portugal Switzerland Italy Austria Former Yugoslavia Greece Czech Republic Poland Slovakia Ukraine Hungary Romania Bulgaria Turkey Moldova Lithuania Latvia Estonia Belarus Georgia Azerbaijan Syria Levant Egypt Libya Tunisia Algeria Morocco Mauritania Senegal Guinea-Bissau Guinea Liberia Cote DIvoire Mali Burkina Faso Niger Ghana Togo / Benin Nigeria Cameroon Gabon Republic of Congo Central African Republic Chad Sudan D.R. Congo Rwanda / Burundi Uganda Angola Namibia Zambia Botswana Zimbabwe South Africa Madagascar Malawi Mozambique Tanzania Kenya Somalia Ethiopia Eritrea Hispaniola Sierra Leone Saudi Arabia Yemen Oman UAE Iraq Iran Pakistan Afghanistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Russia Japan Republic of Korea DPR Korea Mongolia China Taiwan Philippines Vietnam Cambodia Laos Thailand Burma Nepal Bangladesh Sri Lanka India Australia New Zealand Papua New Guinea Indonesia Malaysia Antarctica

How do you like this format? Any recommended changes?

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Cho's Self-Promotion

Cho Seung-Hui was crazy, but not modest. He mailed a package to NBC news with photos of himself and writings. Full story here.

Gmail: Backwards Compatability

In case you missed it, here's another great reason to get GMail. It's the champagne of webmails, the Cadillac of message delivery, the sine qua non of modern communications. And they even know how to pull a good April Fools joke.

Virgina Tech Rundown

The newest news: Here are previous Global Review stories on the Blacksburg Massacre:

New Feature: Global Review's Map-o'-News

Right now, each country is simply linked to its own Google News results. I'll try some different versions of the Map-o'-News before settling down. Any suggestions / feedback?

United States of America Canada Greenland Iceland Britain Eire Mexico Central America Cuba Jamaica Lesser Antilles Colombia Ecuador Peru Venezuela Guyana, Suriname, Fr. G Brazil Uruguay Paraguay Bolivia Chile Argentina Norway Sweden Finland Denmark Germany Netherlands Belgium France Spain Portugal Switzerland Italy Austria Former Yugoslavia Greece Czech Republic Poland Slovakia Ukraine Hungary Romania Bulgaria Turkey Moldova Lithuania Latvia Estonia Belarus Georgia Azerbaijan Syria Levant Egypt Libya Tunisia Algeria Morocco Mauritania Senegal Guinea-Bissau Guinea Liberia Cote DIvoire Mali Burkina Faso Niger Ghana Togo / Benin Nigeria Cameroon Gabon Republic of Congo Central African Republic Chad Sudan D.R. Congo Rwanda / Burundi Uganda Angola Namibia Zambia Botswana Zimbabwe South Africa Madagascar Malawi Mozambique Tanzania Kenya Somalia Ethiopia Eritrea Hispaniola Sierra Leone Saudi Arabia Yemen Oman UAE Iraq Iran Pakistan Afghanistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Russia Japan Republic of Korea DPR Korea Mongolia China Taiwan Philippines Vietnam Cambodia Laos Thailand Burma Nepal Bangladesh Sri Lanka India Australia New Zealand Papua New Guinea Indonesia Malaysia Antarctica

Can you see the entire map on your browser? Do the roll-over captions and links all work?

Disclaimer: small countries have been ignored, and in some cases lumped together. This map does not indicate Global Review's position on sovereignty.

BREAKING NEWS: Partial Birth Abortion Banned

Ladies and gentlemen: if you feel the urge to bash in a baby's skull and suck its brains out, you will have to do it in another country. Alternately, you can use less obviously barbaric methods of dismemberment.

Current presidential hopefuls who have spoken or voted in favor of using partial-birth abortion include Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich and Chris Dodd.

Candidates who have spoken or voted against the ban include Tommy Thompson, Sam Brownback, John McCain, Joe Biden, Chuck Hagel, Ron Paul, Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Fred Thompson, and Rudy Giuliani, who has all his bases covered.

John Edwards did not vote on the ban in its final form, and has not maintained a uniform position on the issue, though he did say in his campaigns that he opposed the procedure. I could find nothing on Mitt Romney specifically on partial-birth abortion, though he has famously flip-flopped on abortion rights generally.

Nikki Giovanni v. Cho Seung-Hui

Nikki Giovanni, as we are all now learning, is a professor of poetry at Virginia Tech. I read her poems in high school - she's one of America's leading poets. Not surprisingly, her class fills to capacity with every offering: she takes 70 students.

For anyone who has ever taken or tried to take a celebrity-taught class, you know how much students want to be in the class. I made it into former Gov. Michael Dukakis' class at Northeastern; I didn't make it into Red Sox announcer Joe Castiglione's class. Student know it's a privilege to take classes like that. So when I read that 63 of 70 students had dropped Giovanni's poetry class in Fall '05, I was shocked.

They must have been shocked too. College students aren't a squeamish bunch, by and large, but Cho Seung-Hui's compositions in Giovanni's class were violent and threatening enough that 63 out of 70 students dropped the class. Giovanni confronted Cho, forced him to leave the class and work with department head Lucinda Roy (who also felt seriously threatened by the student).

Perhaps some students tried to reach out to Cho; he doesn't seem like the type who would open up to anyone. Obviously the English Department tried to reach him. But as Giovanni admitted, "reports on Monday that the gunman was Asian left 'no doubt' in her mind who did it."

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

BREAKING RUMOR: Cho Parents Attempt Suicide

This has not yet broken in the English-language news, but Korean news sources are reporting that the parents of Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech mass murderer, attempted suicide. His father died, his mother survived the suicide attempt, according to the rumor, which U.S. authorities deny. The Chos lived in Centreville, Virginia.

My Korean source assures me there is no tradition of honor suicide of this type in Korean culture.

Google Translator doesn't do the Korean article justice.

Update, Wednesday 10:03 am: According to an Australian TV station owned by MSN, the Cho parents did not attempt suicide, but have been hospitalized with "shock".

Virginia Tech and the Second Amendment

Too quickly, opponents of the Second Amendment have turned the Virginia Tech shootings into a gun-rights issue. Media questioners forced White House spokeswoman Dana Perino and John McCain into restating their support for Second Amendment rights, statements which are then reported to make the conservatives sound callous and ideological. I should not have to argue that it is inappropriate for either side to make political capital out of this event at least until the dust settles.

Our 'friends' the Europeans have immediately jumped to blame the victim. A Der Spiegel column (in English) chronicles the spite. When my foreign colleagues asked me to explain why America has so many shootings, I came to the conclusion: this is what our violent types do instead of bombs. We have far fewer bombings than Europe; they have far fewer shootings. Perhaps the biggest difference in reaction is that nobody here will suggest kicking all the Koreans out or fingerprinting every student as a response.

At least one writer has had the more logical thought process about guns that I had: where were all the gun-toters? If the Europeans are right about the pervasiveness of firearms, someone of the hundreds of southern, rural Virginians who were in the vicinity of Norris Hall yesterday would have been armed! The problem is not the pervasiveness of arms, but their scarcity: only those who are planning to use them take the time to get them. We want guns in the hands of those who would deplore using them - but are able and willing if it's necessary to save life.

Generally, I'm in favor of gun control. There are a lot of other situations where guns would not stop a crime, or - as in gang warfare - where both sides are already armed. But this particular crime should not be held up as an example for those in favor of stricter gun control.

Pizza Bartman?

Hat tips to Soxaholix, the Herald, and NESN for this one:
When you’re in the stands you’ve got to be ready for anything - a foul ball, a flying slice of pizza, everything.
I have no further insight.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Chatter Ranking Graphs

Charting the chatter for the past two years, we can see that Democrats have a decided advantage in coverage. Overall, they've gotten 58% of all the stories I've tracked; since May 2006. Coverage has shifted more towards Democrats in the past year - and has grown tremendously at the same time, spiking with the candidacy announcements in January and diminishing somewhat since then. The pace should begin to pick up in a couple months as the Iowa Straw Poll (in Ames, August 19, 2007) nears.

See the full Chatter Rankings below.

Free-For-All 2008: Republicans Falling Apart, Democrats Coming Together

2007: a tale of two parties. The Democrats have two strong candidates and inexplicable hanger-on who retain the top three spots, the big money, and the good poll standings.

The Republican pre-primary, on the other hand, is the wild, wild west. Most of the recent excitement surrounds two non-candidates: Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich. The best fundraiser - Mitt Romney - rarely breaks the top three in polls. The best poller - Giuliani - cannot raise money, and has positions that put him far out of line with most primary voters. The most chattered about - John McCain - keeps seeing his name used in sentences with words like "beleaguered" and "embattled".

The G.O.P. election will be great for science. Does money win elections? Or is it polling popularity? Or connections with the party's establishment? Hollywood voice and looks? A gubernatorial record? Or a lot of news chatter? We'll find out.

The monthly prediction...
Apr '07: Clinton & Warner over McCain & Giuliani
Mar '07: Clinton & Obama over McCain & Giuliani
Feb '07: Clinton & Obama over McCain & Giuliani
Jan '07: Clinton & Obama over McCain & Giuliani
Dec '06: Clinton & Obama over McCain & Giuliani
Nov '06: McCain & Giuliani over Clinton & Warner
Oct '06: McCain & Giuliani over Clinton & Warner
Sep '06: McCain & Giuliani over Clinton & Warner
Aug '06: McCain & Giuliani over Clinton & Warner
Jul '06: Clinton & Warner over Allen & Romney
Jun '06: Clinton & Warner over Allen & Romney
May '06: Clinton & Warner over Allen & Romney
Apr '06: Clinton & Warner over Allen & Romney
Mar '06: Clinton & Warner over Allen & Rice
Feb '06: Clinton & Warner over Allen & Rice

Rank Candidate ChatterRank Change
R.1 Sen. John McCain 5,6630
R.2 Rudy Giuliani 4,7290
R.3 Gov. Mitt Romney 3,1580
R.4 Sen. Chuck Hagel 2,233+4
R.5 Newt Gingrich 1,787-1
R.6* (new) Fred Thompson 1,119+10
R.7 Gov. Mike Huckabee 7580
R.8 Sen. Sam Brownback 708-2
R.9 Secy. Condoleezza Rice 616-4
R.10 Tommy Thompson 596+1
R.11 Rep. Duncan Hunter 570-2
R.12* (new) Ron Paul 430-2
R.13 Rep. Tom Tancredo 4220
R.14 Gov. Jeb Bush 228-4
R.15 Gov. George Pataki 131-1
....................................................................................................
D.1 Sen. Hillary Clinton 6,993+1
D.2 Sen. Barack Obama 5,220-1
D.3 Sen. John Edwards 5,1490
D.4 Sen. John Kerry 2,701+2
D.5 Al Gore 2,605-1
D.6 Sen. Joseph Biden 1,667+1
D.7 Sen. Christopher Dodd 1,661+1
D.8 Gov. Bill Richardson 1,624-3
D.9 Rep. Dennis Kucinich 1,299+2
D.10 Sen. Russ Feingold 911+2
D.11 Howard Dean 827-1
D.12 Gov. Tom Vilsack 505-3
D.13 Gov. Mark Warner 437-1
D.14 Wesley Clark 34-1

Notes: The Chatter Rankings are created by searching each candidate's name plus "2008" in the Google News database. This month tested but not qualifying are Al Sharpton (114), Jim Gilmore (77) and Mike Gravel (126). Non-contenders are kept on the rolls as Vice-Presidential possibilities (e.g. Rice) and benchmarks (e.g. Dean). This month, I purged George Allen, who has the same chance of becoming president as a macaca.

See brand new graphs of the Chatter Rankings plus Chatter Rankings from March, February, January, December 2006, November, October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February, December 2005, August, July, June, and May.