Mowgli Syndrome & Other Animal Stories

Great Mowgli Woogli!

This is really weird.

Authorities say the 7-year-old boy’s only form of communication was “chirping” after spending his life in a bird cage-filled apartment with a mother who treated him like one of her pets, Pravda reported.

The “bird-boy” – whom authorities said suffered from Mowgli syndrome, from the Jungle Book character raised by wild animals - didn't engage in any normal human communication but instead learnt the language of birds, the report said.

The boy’s 31-year-old mother fed him and didn't physically harm him – she just treated him like a bird.

Social worker Galina Volskaya said authorities were shocked when they found the boy in a two-bedroom apartment – which had bird droppings scattered across the floor.

“When you start talking to him, he chirps,” Volskaya said.

Volskaya also said when the boy becomes frustrated by being unable to communicate with authorities using bird-talk, he waves his arms as if they were wings.

I guess there's a syndrome for everything. Poor kid.
My parrot on the other hand thinks it's human so it can't seem to stand the company of other birds and only wants human attention. Takes all types in this world I guess.

Shark Attacks Officially On The Rise Around The World

One of the things we do on this blog is track reports of shark attacks. I don't know how it started, but it's now a tradition here. In that light, I present to you this excerpt:

The number of worldwide shark attacks overall increased from 63 in 2006 to 71 in 2007, continuing a gradual upswing over the past four years, Burgess said.

There have been five unprovoked shark attacks so far this year (most shark attacks are unprovoked), Burgess said. However, the death of Markus Groh, 49, an Austrian lawyer, on Monday is under investigation and might be classified as provoked as he was part of an uncaged tourist dive off the Bahamas where chum is thrown into open water.

"There are more people in the water than there ever have been," Burgess told LiveScience. "We can pretty much predict that next year there will be even more attacks. Even if shark populations are declining, which we know they are, even in a local situation if populations have been depleted, there is still a probability of getting an attack."

Here's the link.
I still think you're asking for trouble when you go into the water t certain times of the day or surf in certain parts of the coastline.
There was this item yesterday too.

The pair was carrying out research for the University of Adelaide at the time.

"I was looking at Jarrod when I felt a whack on the back which rotated me around," Mr Rowntree said.

"Initially I thought it was a dolphin but pretty quickly I realised it was not."

Mr Stehbens, a "highly experienced diver" then fought for his life against the 5m shark.

"It went straight towards Jarrod, initially he whacked it directly on the snout and it seemed to go away momentarily," Mr Rowntree said.

"Then it came back and took his leg and dragged him under ... it happened like a flash."

"A plate of shrimp", as 'Repoman' would say.

Sprung!

Les 'Raging Bully' Murray - Part 2

This news is now on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald.
A man would say anything -*ANYTHING* to cover up for bad judgment calls. Here's the latest on Les Murray's "publish my wife's novel and I'll give you your blurb" deal offer to publishers Puncher and Wattmann.

Contacted by the Herald yesterday, Murray dismissed the letter as "a joke" and said his intention was to say no to the publisher, "but I said it in a baroque way". Told it did not read like a joke, he replied, "It reads like, 'Piss off', actually."

For 40 years, he said, "people have been preying on me for free services and this is only a desire to stir trouble. People are forever asking me for blurbs. I've been

pestered unmercifully." Anyway, he said, "blurbs are nonsense - they're all hyperbole and hype, a publishers' bad habit. Read the contents of the damned book."

In his letter, he writes, "My endorsement does carry some clout, and I try never to cheapen it … "

Murray told the Herald "various other publishers" had seen his wife's book, Flight From The Brothers Grimm, an account of her family's postwar journey from Budapest to Switzerland and Melbourne.

David Musgrave, the publisher at Puncher & Wattman, said Moving Along: Selected Verse by J. K. Murphy, an 81-year-old Melbourne poet, would be out soon. He thought it appropriate to ask Murray for a comment for the book cover because Murray had published poems by Murphy in Quadrant magazine, where he is literary editor. "If he'd said no, we would have said, 'Fine, thanks,' but he's gone out of his way to offend us," Musgrave said. "He has been very unpleasant and he does seem to court hatred. We refuse to be bullied."

Uh, yeah Mr. Murray. Blurbs are hyperbole, but yours "does carry some clout", right? What kind of excuse is it that others have been pestering him for 40 years so he can write what he wrote to the publishers? Where's the logical consistency in that argument? Mr. Murray needs some mental health assistance if he thinks that makes any sense in light of what he wrote.

It's hardly the case that Mr. Murray was pestered by anybody. He was asked for one blurb. In the time it took to write his alleged "Piss-Off" note, he could have written the blurb; but no, he wanted to write what he wrote instead. You feel sorry for his wife, regardless of the quality of her manuscript.
Pretty laughable that a man would part with his good reputation so easily.

More Moneyball

Jeremy Brown Retires

In one of the more sad episodes this off-season, Jeremy Brown of 'Moneyball' fame has decided to call it quits.

Brown was one of seven players the Athletics picked among the first 39 players taken in the 2002 draft, a focal point of the book. Billy Beane, the Athletics’ general manager, found Brown attractive, despite his size, because he was a college player with a high on-base percentage.

Veteran scouts for the A’s scoffed at the pick. Picking amateur players from among thousands was too much of a gamble, as everyone knew, and Beane sought a system that could be more reliable and less wasteful.

Brown’s retirement is a good time to look back at the Athletics’ 2002 draft and see how the system worked. Based on statistics more than on the established method of having scouts identify prospects from seeing them play, the system has become more widely used and has created debate between old-timers and younger executives.

The change in thinking made its biggest impact on the former Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty, who was let go last fall despite a World Series championship in 2006, because of a difference in scouting philosophy.

“There are whole Web sites and companies dedicated to providing statistics on college players,” Beane said in a telephone interview. “I think clubs are utilizing them more now than they have in the past. Some companies have solicited clubs and some have accepted.”

Beane unveiled his method to his scouts before the 2002 draft. That was to be a potentially fruitful draft for the A’s because they had so many early picks as a result of the Oakland free agents signed by other teams. With their first seven picks, the A’s selected Nick Swisher, Joe Blanton, John McCurdy, Ben Fritz, Brown, Stephen Obenchain and Mark Teahen. Swisher, Blanton and Teahen have played in the majors for three years, although Blanton is the only one remaining with the Athletics. Swisher was traded to the Chicago White Sox this winter, and Teahen was traded to Kansas City in June 2004 for Octavio Dotel.

Fritz, a pitcher, is preparing for his seventh minor league season, but infielder McCurdy and pitcher Obenchain were released after last season. Beane said hitting on three of seven early picks was a good result.

“You’d like to be 50 for 50, but that’s the imperfection of the draft,” he said. “That was the point of the process for us. The complete randomness is why we did what we did. I think the draft up to this point has been pretty random. The average number of players teams get to the big leagues is two. The idea was to try to do something objectively to compare decisions down the road.”

Four of the seven players picked by Oakland (57 percent) among the first 39 picks in that draft have played in the majors, including Brown. Of the other 32 picks, 20 have played in the majors (62.5 percent).

And so it comes to pass. Mark Teahen made it, but with another club. Nick Swisher made it, but got traded to the White Sox in the current A's rebuild. Joe Blanton too made it, but he too may be traded. McCrudy, Fritz and Obenchian didn't make it. In hat context Jeremy Brown did okay, even if it was to play a handful of games at the MLB level. Was he worth being a first round draft? Not enough players from the first round make it in any given year. He did all right.

You Must Be Joking Les Murray

How & Why Australian Poetry Is Made Small By The Likes Of Les Murray

All this is hearsay and rumour in the wonderful wee world of Australian Literature but the evidence doing the rounds is pretty damning.

The story goes like this: Poet J.K. Murphy is 81. Puncher and Wattmann are going to publish the selected works. Mr. Murphy has been around for a long while and has been published in such notable publications as 'Quadrant'. He is in his own way, an important enough contributor to Australian poetry, as any other name.

So the editors of Puncher and Wattmann sent a letter to Les Murray to see if he might be interested in writing a blurb for Mr. Murphy's book. Apparently, the response they got from Les Murray is as below:

Where do you start with a letter like this?

The first assertion that his proposal is 'eminently fair' is eminently false. In what kind of world, does a few hundred words on a blurb carry as much economic value as necessitating the risk to publish a book, sight unseen? How long has Mr. Murray been in print? Does he think all and any publisher would just roll over to idiotic demands like this? I cannot imagine a single other professional author on the planet that would suggest that this was a fair transaction, let alone decent. Worse still, he goes on to argue a case for his idiotic and indecent proposal.

Indeed, the indecency of the proposal is pungent. Instead of addressing anything to do with Mr. Murphy's career or upcoming book, Les Murray expends a whole 300 or so words pitching his wife's manuscript. Then he has the gall to assert that if and when the said book comes out in print, then he will write the blurb. In other words, he has no concern for the fact that Mr. Murphy is 81 - no screw that, Mr. Murray seems to say, - print my wife's book first and then I'll write you your blurb.

As a side note, we should argue, if his wife's manuscript is so damn good, why hasn't anybody else published it? And why should it fall to Puncher and Wattmann to take on the costs and effort of marketing this book that clearly has not made the grade for other publishers, sight-unseen? It begs the question, "Just who the hell does he think he is?"
Clearly, he's thinking "I'm Les Murray, and I'm IMPORTANT," which is all abundantly clear from his claim that his endorsement carries clout. I have news for you Mr. Murray, your endorsement couldn't sell me Shakespeare.

He's serious, because he says "let me know quickly if you wish to enter into this arrangement, and Valerie's ms will be swiftly on its way to you."
He's not kidding; Not only is his style completely lacking in professional respect, he's trying to browbeat the publishers into hurrying up. The utter lack of formality and professionalism is astounding. The bullying tone is ridiculous and filled with self-importance with scant regard for Mr. Murphy's career's worth of work. He seems utterly oblivious to just how insulting he is being.
What planet is he on?

It's difficult to believe this is the caliber of the man who was once tapped to help John Howard write a draft of the preamble to our constitution (when one word: "Mate," would have sufficed). One wonders why the cultural cringe persists in Australian poetry, but when one comes across this altogether ungracious man's handiwork, one comes to realise that it's because people like Les Murray are held up as being so damned important. The fact of the matter is, we don't cringe enough, and it applies doubly to Les Murray: he really should cringe in shame a whole lot more.

Rocket Man

Roger Clemens Appears At Hearings

At this point in time, it's getting harder to believe Roger Clemens' claim that he never touched PEDs. One of the weirder things to come out of the Clemens camp was that when he *did* mention HGH to Brian McNamee, it was in relation to his wife getting them for the Sports Illustrated photo-shoot.

Well, I guess if you want to look good, you have to work at it. I have to say she looked pretty good in that shoot, considering she has pushed out 4 younger rockets out into the world. Good for her! It's a weird photo, and knowing about the HGH thing makes it even weirder. Anyway, Clemens' point is that he didn't do it, his wife did. And the dog ate his homework.

A Couple of days ago, Jose "juiced" Canseco came out and said that he never discussed steroids or PEDs with Roger Clemens.

The first mention of Clemens' name in the Mitchell Report is on page 167. On the very next page comes McNamee's account of "a lunch party that Canseco hosted at his home in Miami."

"McNamee stated that, during this luncheon, he observed Clemens, Canseco, and another person he did not know meeting inside Canseco's house, although McNamee did not personally attend that meeting," the Mitchell Report says.

In his affidavit, Canseco said, "I specifically recall that Clemens did not come to the bar-b-que. I remember this because I was disappointed that he did not attend. I later learned that he had a golfing commitment that day and could not attend the party."

Canseco's book about steroids in baseball, "Juiced," drew Congress' attention in 2005, leading to that year's hearing. He and Clemens were teammates on the 1996 Boston Red Sox and 2000 New York Yankees, in addition to the '98 Blue Jays.In his affidavit, the existence of which was first reported by the AP on Saturday, Canseco also disputes other statements of McNamee's in the Mitchell Report. The affidavit also says "neither Senator Mitchell nor anyone working with him" contacted Canseco to attempt to corroborate things McNamee said.

It's a weird endorsement, but it is an affidavit. It's a bit like getting a character endorsement from a heroin junky.

The more this Steroid circus goes on, the more I'm inclined to think I'm participating in a hypocrisy contest - the person who can express the most disapproval wins!. There are some sports where they test the hell out of you, and there are other sports that don't. Every time we find a drug cheat, we get up in arms like he's Ben Johnson. The thing about Ben Johnson is that he did run faster than Carl Lewis, even though he surrendered his gold medal to Lewis. And then it came out years afterwards that Lewis may have been on PEDs too - but by then it was too late to take away his gold medal and give it to the next guy. All the while there's no guarantee the next guy didn't do steroids either.

Then there's the historic problem where MLB and the MLBPA were complicit in letting the steroid problem go unchecked for many years. Even if it weren't intentional, they ended up in a situation where they tacitly condoned it. When most other sports were screaming blue about PEDs, baseball sort of went and celebrated the Festival of the Longball with Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. It just doesn't look good to then turn around and haggle about whether Roger Clemens was on PEDs or not or whether that is provable in the US Senate when MLB didn't exactly have rules against PEDs, let alone a testing policy. It's not surprising Dick Pound and the World Anti-Doping Agency managed to kick baseball off the Olympic sport list. baseball had it coming.
But is it fair (within its own crappy confines of non-testing and head-in-the-sand administration of PED regulation) to then turn around and hoist up these people?

On top of all this mess there's the record book. We might expunge Ben Johnson's record but the fact remains he ran 100m in 9.79s. To my knowledge, that mark has not been broken. Tim Montgomery ran it in 9.78 with a 2.0m/s tailwind, but he too was found to have used PEDs. I think Bonds' record stands. The balls went over the fence, the result stands. Ditto anything and everything that happened in the 'Steroids Era'. It's crappy, but the discomfort of living with it should be a reminder to us all that PEDs can ruin your sport in more ways than one.

Sorry Nation

The 'Sorry' Day

There we have it. The 'Apology' which has been on the horizon since Kevin Rudd won the election. Before I go on, I want to make one thing abundantly clear: I support it.

Now that it's been said, it can't be unsaid. Will the apology be accepted? One wonders. This discussion quickly turned to compensation.

Respected Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson was among several to issue fresh calls for the government to financially compensate victims.

But in his speech to parliament after delivering the official apology, Mr Rudd said the time had come for the nation to turn a new page.

The time for denying Australia's history was also at an end.

"Our nation Australia has reached such a time and that is why the parliament is today here assembled," he said.

"To deal with this unfinished business of the nation.

"To remove a great stain from the nation's soul and in the true spirit of reconciliation to open a new chapter in the history of this great land Australia."

Acknowledging the apology would not fix indigenous people's pain, Mr Rudd announced he and Dr Nelson would take the unprecedented step of co-chairing a new bipartisan "war cabinet" tasked with tackling Aboriginal disadvantage.

While the formal apology said "sorry" three times, Mr Rudd's speech also offered personal apologies to the stolen generations.

"As prime minister of Australia, I am sorry," he said.

Yeah, yeah. So much for wanting only the symbolism of an apology. I had hoped we would come to a point f settlement without money, but that's clearly not what has happened.

On a tangential note, I once lambasted Kevin Rudd as a guy who had very little credibility when it comes to race issues on this blog. I was very wrong.
So I'm going to take this opportunity to apologise to Kevin Rudd. You're a lot bigger man than I thought. I'm sorry Kevin.

Now that that's out of the way, I hope he doesn't come looking for compensation.

Owning Up Is Easy, Paying Up Is Hard
Believe it or not, I think saying sorry is the easy part. You can even say you feel deep remorse and regret the actions of your forbears, but it always comes back to the issue of "well, just how sorry are you anyway? Show me the money."

This mechanism reminds me a bit of the way Yakuza would try and extort money out of innocent people. They bump into them on the streets, fall over in an exaggerated manner, then demand compensation. "what do you mean you're sorry but you don't have money. You hurt me and you want to walk away having just spoken some words?"
And then the threats of social humiliation begin.

So you look at that mechanism and you have to say the victim status really allows you to cash in. And we as a society are weak towards our victims. Hence piles of cash that go out on compensation cases all the time.

Then there was Dr. Nelson's speech that whilst supported the apology, kind of intimated that not enough children were taken away and the practice should be continued - at least that's how some have interpreted it. It's all kind of painful to watch. I guess when an Empire is in retreat, sundry issues like this crop up. This process of history took place in Canada as well, and if it weren't for the American War of Independence, maybe the USA would have to be undertaking this kind of thing as well. Or perhaps in half a century, a US President is going to have to apologise to the depleted -core-uranium-affected generation of Iraq. Who knows?

As Keith Richards called his first solo album, 'Talk is Cheap'.

The News That's Fit To Abuse

Heather Mills - Sex Addict?

Here's more than you ever wanted to know about Heather Mills:

The former model, who appeared in London's High Court overnight to settle her bitter divorce battle with The Beatles legend, was "insatiable" in the bedroom and laughed about being "pursued" by Paul while romancing Tim Steel in 1999.

Steel, who had allegedly been sleeping with Heather for three years when she met Paul, said: "Heather was insatiable, she demanded sex six times a night.

"I'd come home to find her waiting naked in bed. She had a hoard of vibrators for when she was home alone. Her favourite was a huge back massager that she plugged into the mains.

"She would laugh and say, 'I'm being pursued by a Beatle!' She even showed me text messages from Paul. She was up for it anywhere. Once she pleasured me under my desk while I was at work."

Film editor Steel also revealed Heather, who lost her left leg below the knee in a motorbike accident in 1993, went wild with pleasure when he massaged her amputated limb.

He said: "Heather has a very unusual erogenous zone - her stump. I used to massage one particular area and it gave her an orgasm."

Steel claims their secret romance continued until Heather joined Paul on a romantic Caribbean holiday in 2000.

He remained in contact with Heather, 40, until she married Paul, 65, in 2002.

He added to Britain's News of the World newspaper: "I hung around because I didn't think Paul and Heather would last. I knew what Heather was like. She only married him because it opened up lots of doors for her."

Meanwhile, the former model reportedly wept over the weekend after Paul snubbed her desperate pleas to settle their divorce in private.

A source told Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper: "Heather kept phoning but he wouldn't take her calls. When she eventually did get through she was in tears. She is desperate to settle out of court, but he ended the conversation by saying, 'I will see you in court'. She wanted to tell him she wasn't unfaithful and is worried the claims will affect her payment."

The erogenous stump bit was really kinky. That and the wall-socket connected dark black sex appliance. One ought not judge, but really, the description of her vibrator hoard is pretty out there.

The first phrase that popped into my mind was 'Sex Addict'. It's a funny phrase that's been bandied about in the last 10 years. I remember first seeing it on the cover of some shopping checkout magazine where the headline screamed something like: "Catherine Zeta-Jones cures Michael Douglas of his Sex Addiction".

I thought, crikey, 1) I don't want to be cured out of sex 2) even if it was Catherine Zeta-Jones 3) especially if it was Catherine Zeta-Jones. I mean what would be the point of that?
The point of being a movie star is to be able to get laid at will, at whim, with as many gorgeous starlets as possible. What other ancillary benefit is there?

So when Michael Douglas was beaming next to Zeta-Jones at the height of her beauty and appeal it seemed like a new kind of insanity - A bit like celebrating a Sac Bunt by Barry Bonds circa 2002, at the height of his steroid-fueled Homer hitting prowess. When you have those kinds of assets, it's the wrong kind of swing to be taking. Catherine Zeta-Jones curing people of Sex Addiction! Come on!

Anyway, since then I've seen it go into common parlance like it's an official addiction. More recently I was watching 'Blades of Glory' where Will Ferrell plays 'Chaz Michael Michaels' who claims he is a sex addict and that it is a legitimate medical condition. "I'm a sex addict! It's a real medical condition!" he hollers in his unique, unconvincing way. It's funny because we just don't believe it's a condition at all. Better still there's a word for it already and it is 'promiscuous'. Still, it's right here to be defined.

Later on in the film, Ferrell's character turns up to a 'Sex Addicts Anonymous' meeting to hilarious effect.

In case you didn't know, here's a 12 question test to see if you are one and need help:

1. Do you keep secrets about your sexual or romantic activities from those important to you? Do you lead a double life?
2. Have your needs driven you to have sex in places or situations or with people you would not normally choose?
3. Do you find yourself looking for sexually arousing articles or scenes in newspapers, magazines, or other media?
4. Do you find that romantic or sexual fantasies interfere with your relationships or are preventing you from facing problems?
5. Do you frequently want to get away from a sex partner after having sex? Do you frequently feel remorse, shame, or guilt after a sexual encounter?
6. Do you feel shame about your body or your sexuality, such that you avoid touching your body or engaging in sexual relationships? Do you fear that you have no sexual feelings, that you are asexual?
7. Does each new relationship continue to have the same destructive patterns which prompted you to leave the last relationship?
8. Is it taking more variety and frequency of sexual and romantic activities than previously to bring the same levels of excitement and relief?
9. Have you ever been arrested or are you in danger of being arrested because of your practices of voyeurism, exhibitionism, prostitution, sex with minors, indecent phone calls, etc.?
10. Does your pursuit of sex or romantic relationships interfere with your spiritual beliefs or development?
11. Do your sexual activities include the risk, threat, or reality of disease, pregnancy, coercion, or violence?
12. Has your sexual or romantic behavior ever left you feeling hopeless, alienated from others, or suicidal?

Well, all this might apply to Heather after all. Maybe it applies to us all. Seems to be too broad a net. Anyway, we'll see how the world reacts to all this guff.

Passings

Koji Kibe, Author (1931-2008)

While he is not my blood relative as such, he was my aunt's husband. Koji Kibe was also a two-time finalist in the prestigious Akutagawa Literature Prize in 1982 and 1984. I never got to talk to him about literature, and now I am feeling this great remorse and regret as that would have been very interesting.

He died on the 2nd of Feb of heart failure. My father said it was a good way to die as he went suddenly with no warning. He didn't drink or smoke and was a very exemplary, healthy man so it came as a shock. But I can sort of understand my old man's take on it.

In his other life as Haruki Sumita, he was a lens designer for the now defunct Minolta. I have always stood by Minolta cameras because of this vague filial link. he also had one more fascinating link into Japanese lit.: He was the grandson of the man Noboru Sumita, who became the model for 'Badger' in Soseki Natsume's first novel 'Botchan'.
He's one of those people for whom I have nothing negative to say. The few times I met him in my childhood, he was a lovely uncle to me. He will be sorely missed.

The News That's Fit To Abuse

Race And Gender

Amazingly, Barrack Obama's campaign is gaining momentum. Here's an interesting article.

A year ago, Clinton was the prohibitive favourite to win the Democratic presidential nomination, with a massive war chest, a national organisation, universal brand recognition, the support of the union movement, a strong base in the Senate, and millions of women wanting a woman to be president for the first time.

All this has not proved enough. The only factor that has kept Clinton in the lead has been racial animosity. African-Americans and Latino-Americans do not like each other. Their voting in this campaign has conformed to this reality. While Obama has won the overwhelming majority of the black vote, Clinton has won the overwhelming majority of the Latino vote.

In Washington, the commentariat has attributed the Clinton campaign's dominance of the Latino to the "goodwill factor", a legacy of the presidency of Bill Clinton and his support of the free trade pact with Mexico. This is partly true and mostly rubbish. It is not the goodwill factor but the ill-will factor that has split the Democratic vote so cleanly on racial lines.

Whites, in contrast, have not voted as a racial bloc. Not at all.

They are voting for Obama in their millions. He has won more votes from white Americans than any of the Republican candidates in their primary races, which are dominated by white voters. Hillary Clinton's natural majority with women voters has been offset by empathy for Obama among white men.

The trouble facing the Clinton campaign is that it is running out of Latinos. Only Texas remains, a big prize she will win, thanks to the large Mexican-American vote, the same bloc that delivered California last week, thus saving the Clinton campaign. Beyond Texas I think she has a problem.

Her lead in the polls, and on the ground, and with white voters, simply evaporated as soon as the political shooting started this year, in the rural Midwest state of Iowa. Five weeks ago, after the Iowa caucuses, I began this column with these words: "I've been following or covering American politics all my adult life and the best speech I have ever heard in a presidential campaign was delivered at 10.30 in the evening, Iowa time, by a man who had been up since 4am. That man was Barack Obama."

On Saturday, for the first time in the campaign, Clinton and Obama spoke at the same event, the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Richmond, Virginia. Clinton was polished. Obama was electric. The crowd responded accordingly.

Obama was able to lay out key and defining positions that Clinton simply cannot access. As he said at the weekend, he always opposed the invasion of Iraq, "a war which should not have been authorised and never have been fought", and a war that Clinton voted to authorise. He can say, as he did yesterday, that his campaign has been financed by more than 200,000 small donors, not by lobbyists, big donors and big unions, unlike Clinton. He can advocate a mandatory national health insurance safety net for every American, while Clinton's plans for healthcare reform remain mired in complexity.

If Clinton is dumped by the gathering wave of support for Obama, the November election will offer a stark choice. Senator John McCain, who has almost wrapped up the Republican nomination, is a 71-year-old graduate of West Point who fought in Vietnam, was captured and tortured, who backed the invasion of Iraq and the recent troop surge. The success of that surge, and his record as a war hero, have been critical to his success in a field that has not excited the imagination of the Republican Party, a party fatigued by the presidency of George Bush.

The Democratic primaries have mobilised almost twice as many voters as the Republicans, and much greater energy. The great irony of the 2008 campaign is that Clinton, and not the Republican nominee, is the candidate who can most galvanise the Republicans. No similar animosity is offered to the 46-year-old African-American from Chicago and Harvard generating so much electricity among white voters.

Whites, in contrast, have not voted as a racial bloc. Not at all.

They are voting for Obama in their millions. He has won more votes from white Americans than any of the Republican candidates in their primary races, which are dominated by white voters. Hillary Clinton's natural majority with women voters has been offset by empathy for Obama among white men.

So according to this article, these are the choices being made:

• Black Guy - Votes Obama out of race-&-gender solidarity.

• White Chick - Votes Hillary out of race-&-gender solidarity

• Black Woman - is in a dilemma but Votes Obama out of race solidarity; drops gender.

• Latino Guy - Votes Hillary because she's *not Black*. Race counts more than gender.

• Latino Chick - As above,Votes Hillary. Gender solidarity plus race considerations.

• Big surprise, White Guy Votes Obama out of gender solidarity; drops race.

The biggest block out of the six is actually White Guy and if they're unanimously going for Barrack Obama, I think Obama's going to win the Democratic Nomination now. What can be gleaned from this likely outcome? It is perhaps that amongst liberals, in a contest between the black liberation politics of the 1960s and the Women's Liberation politics of the 1960s, at some level the former took root in American society more than the latter. That the White Guy had fewer problems letting the Black Guy into the workplace than letting women.

I still think an Obama Presidency is going to be short-lived, and likely to end in a hail of bullets. However, Mr. Obama, go unto history's embrace. It may just be your destiny.

Gaming and Game-ability
The Federal Government is looking to shut down the pokies.

TENS of thousands of pokies could be phased out across suburban Australia within a decade under a radical new federal tax plan.

The pokies purge would see gaming machines confined to casinos and race tracks.

Family First Senator Steve Fielding will introduce the anti-pokies legislation in Parliament next week.

It involves gradual tax increases being imposed on individual poker machines in pubs and clubs, rendering them non-profitable within five to 10 years.

All revenue from the tax would be held in a trust fund to help community and sporting groups through the transition.

His bold plan came as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hinted at his own gambling reforms by slamming the placement of ATMs in pokie venues.

"Frankly, I think it is wrong that they are there – that's my personal view," he said.

"I do not want to promise the world here, but I know we have a problem and I know that in partnership with states and territories we can work through an agreed analysis on the social impact and what to do about it."

My Mother will be saddened if they disappear because she quite likes them. As does my aunt who flies in regularly from Japan.

UFOs, Huh?
Check this out. Untold Story says that Buzz and Neil and Mike saw UFOs on the way to the Moon.

Nearly 40 years later, this program delves into the not-so-pretty reality behind the mission's achievement. Aldrin and NASA employees discuss the crew's sighting of a UFO (covered up for 30 years), their craft's doomed escape procedures and some almost fatal mechanical failures. This well-made and revealing documentary merges archival footage with interviews to good effect

That's so weird. I didn't know NASA admitted that the crew saw UFOs and that they covered it up. Wikipedia has this entry here.

In 2005, while being interviewed for a documentary entitled "First on the Moon: The Untold Story," Aldrin told an interviewer that he and the crew of the Apollo 11 witnessed an unidentified flying object (UFO)--that is, in the literal sense of the word, an unknown object, not a form of extraterrestrial life. David Morrison, a NAI Senior Scientist, claims to have had a conversation with Aldrin in which he explained that the documentary cut out the interview portions in which Aldrin told interviewers that the Apollo 11 crew ultimately concluded that they were probably seeing a detached panel from the spacecraft.^{[13][14][15][16]} When Aldrin appeared on The Howard Stern Show on August 15, 2007, Howard Stern asked him about the supposed UFO sighting. Aldrin confirmed that there was no such sighting of anything deemed extraterrestrial, and said they were and are "99.9 percent" sure that the object was the detached panel. He also revealed to Stern that he underwent plastic surgery.^[17]

I don't think they saw little green men flying in Flying Saucers. Talk about confusing.

Bio-Crude

CSIRO - Our Tax Payer's Money At Work!

Here's something interesting.

AUSTRALIAN scientists have made a biofuels breakthrough, turning waste products like paper and wood trimmings, crop residue and garden clippings into a stable "bio-crude".

If successfully commercialised, the process could massively reduce the amount of waste going into landfills and help the biofuels industry steer clear of the controversial food versus fuel debate. Most of the world's biofuel is made from food crops such as corn and sugar. Many oppose biofuels because they believe they will lead to higher food prices and hunger among the poor.

The great hope is second-generation technology that enables fuel to be made from waste material like the stalks and leaves of food crops.

Using the process developed by the CSIRO and Monash University, bio-crude could be made on-site at the likes of timber mills then trucked or piped to a refinery to be turned into a petrol substitute.

Steven Loffler from CSIRO Forest Biosciences said the new process had taken 18 months to develop and the key breakthrough was producing a bio-crude that was stable enough to be stored and transported.

Until now, bio-crude made from waste quickly broke down and became useless.

"By making changes to the chemical process, we've been able to create a concentrated bio-crude which is much more stable than that achieved elsewhere in the world," Dr Loffler said.

"This makes it practical and economical to produce bio-crude in local areas for transport to a central refinery, overcoming the high costs and greenhouse gas emissions otherwise involved in transporting bulky green wastes over long distances."

Biofuel production in Australia is still in its infancy. This might provide the impetus for volume production. The downside of all this is that it helps the continuation of the petrol-motor car regime.

The Victim's Prerogative

Show Us The Money

Look, it's a fair cop. The Australian Government is going to issue an apology for the Stolen Generation, but they've said all along that they won't it tie to money. This isn't sitting well with some sections of the Aboriginal community and rightfully so; and yet I have to say it rankles with me.

The National Aboriginal Alliance says the Federal Government should go further than this week's apology to Indigenous Australians and award compensation.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has ruled out financial compensation for members of the Stolen Generations, despite a recommendation in the 1997 'Bringing Them Home' report.

Alliance spokesman Les Malezer says Wednesday's formal apology is welcome, but not enough.

"We are also concerned that the apology is not being accompanied by reparations, which is part of forgiveness, as part of admitting that the wrong thing was done," he said.

"Once the apology has been issued, and providing the apology is not qualified, we will then go on to ask the Government to now consider how it will pay compensation."

Earlier, Mr Rudd said he was still working on the exact wording of the apology.

"The key thing, the absolute key thing here is to get it right in terms of the Stolen Generations themselves, to make sure the language is right," he said.

"That's my first responsibility, otherwise next Wednesday's a wasted event."

I think the discourse always goes:

"We don't want money. We just ant an apology."
"But if we apologise, you'll take that statement as a statement of culpability and want compensation."
"No we won't. Just apologise!"
"Okay. 'I'm Sorry for the dastardly deeds our forefathers perpetrated."
"Apology accepted. Now pay up!"

Which is why some people didn't want to apologise in the first place. I would like to say, if money is going to make the issue go away, how come it hasn't gone away so far? A symbolic apology should be made, and neither side should be quibbling about money in relationship to an apology.

Just as much as the Liberal Government's fear of compensation made their reluctance to make the apology look cheap, the demand for financial compensation on the eve of the apology cheapens the cause for the indigenous people. It ain't about the money if you want to make settlements.
So stop talking about compensation pay outs. Do the right thing by your cause. It's the honorable thing to do for both side - It's how peace settlements are made by honorable parties.

Is iComp Dead?

Crashing RAID Arrays

iCompositions has been off-line for a couple of days now. All of my (and Coelacanth's) glorious music is not accessible any more. The site then put up a temporary thing explaining what was going on in terms of data recovery but it didn't sound like they had anything. They are now sending the drives to Drivesaver to recover the data, hoping that it all comes back.
Yeah...

In the worst case scenario, nothing comes back and all that 4 years worth of community communiques will go up in smoke. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Aftr havig bagged it out for a little while now, I sort of feel a certain amount of fondness for the site conveners and I do have some pretty cool contacts there.

The bright side of a total devastation restart would be that it's always nice to start from scratch again.

Yankees Hotstove Update

Where Are you Now, Carl Pavano...

On second thought, no, I don't want to know. A nation turns its abusive ire to you, woo-hoo-hoo... Except the Rajah of Rehab, the Sultan of Stall, the Duke of the Disabled List himself has turned up at Tampa Bay. What's it about now?

"Sometime this summer, that's the best-case scenario for him to be competitively pitching," GM Brian Cashman said. "Whether that's rehab games or more, we'll see."
Cashman said Pavano was in Tampa early - pitchers and catchers report Thursday - "to get an early start. He'll be in spring training with the big-league club, he's on the 40-man roster and all 40-man players and non-roster invitees come to camp.

"At some point, I hope he can get some stability to his health to allow him to perform. When he's healthy, he has a great deal of ability. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to see that in New York."
Pavano, 32, is 5-6 in 19 starts for the Yankees. He went 1-0 with a 4.76 ERA in two starts last year.

With pitching guru Billy Connors watching from a nearby golf cart, Pavano played catch yesterday in the outfield grass for seven minutes and then took a break, sitting next to Connors. He rested for six minutes and then threw for another five. Pavano's longest throws reached around 80 feet.

It generally takes pitchers 12-18 months to recover from Tommy John, or ligament replacement, surgery. Then, Cashman said, the pitcher's command usually is not the same for the first year back.

"His rehab has been excellent and he feels really strong," said Pavano's agent, Tom O'Connell. "He's very optimistic about getting back on the mound."

Oh, puh-lease!
At some point you'd think Brian Cashman would give up. It was a bad, bad, bad signing, but Cashman was not to know that Carl Pavano would turn into a lemon the moment he signed for the Yanks. The way the Yankees are going, they sure don't need Pavano to be up and running, ready to pitch in August. The starters already go 7 deep before they have to even consider the likes of Kei Igawa as an emergency spot starter, not to mention there is a long line of prospects back through Scranton to Trenton to Tampa and then some before Joe Girardi has to put a gun to his own head and say Pavano starts. Even if Pavano were then to pitch back to back Perfect Games, I don't think there's a single Yankee fan who would forgive him. It was a bad enough joke that he opened the 2007 season. Please, let's not even pretend that there' a chance that Carl Pavano is going to supply any amount of value to the Yankees.

This Week's Whaling Story

Polls Don't Lie, Do They?



I've been resisting writing about the whole whaling thing in the last couple of months but it's getting beyond the pale so here it is. Me with my two cents. I would normally reserve my media-watching to the IWC season, but this year's hunt is garnering front-page news day after day in the Australian media. Most of it is pretty infuriating. Bottom line? Whaling-Outrage sells papers.

Apparently, two-thirds of the Japanese polled by Asahi Shimbun support whaling. The support is stronger in men over 40 and less so in women in their 20s.

Japan's government says whaling is part of the national culture and it has fought bitterly with Western nations over its annual hunt of some 1,000 whales in the Antarctic Ocean.

The Asahi Shimbun said 65 per cent of Japanese support continuing the whaling programme and that 56 per cent of people backed eating whale meat.

Support for whaling was strong among older men, with close to 80 per cent of men between 40 and 70 favouring eating whale meat.

But the the figure was nearly reversed among Japanese women in their 20s, among whom 58 per cent opposed eating whale.

The Asahi survey comes despite other statistics, often cited by environmentalists, pointing out that most Japanese do not eat whale meat, which is rarely found outside of speciality restaurants and stores.

Consumption of whale meat has decreased to 30 grams per person a year - equivalent to a slice of sashimi - compared with 2.5 kilograms in the early 1980s.

It amazes me that the Australian media wants to indulge in a kind of identity politics over whaling, but I guess if two thirds of the Japanese support whaling, there is cause for it: It's getting to the point you have to say that the Japanese are supporting the right to do it, even if they don't necessarily want to eat it themselves. That's pretty bloody-minded, but so has been the rest of western media on the subject.

The whole media circus is getting very sticky for the Federal Government. On the one hand you have the likes of ministers Bob Debus and Peter Garrett pushing for legal action, the Foreign Minister Stephen Smith doesn't want to go to that point.

The Home Affairs Minister, Bob Debus, said the images showed the reality of the slaughter, and would help back Australia's argument against whaling in any international court case.

For the first time, the Government now has its own evidence, should it choose to take whaling to a court such as the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

"There is still time for an 11th-hour effort on the part of the Australian Government to use international law to halt Japan's 'scientific' whaling program," said Tim Stephens of Sydney University's law faculty. "The tribunal could issue an injunction in as little as 14 days."

However, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, said he would consult Japan before any legal action was taken, and Mr Garrett described it as a "potential" component of the anti-whaling campaign.

"You have to consider the options in legal action, because it's a big step to be taking," Mr Garrett said.

Almost two months after saying the Government would appoint a special envoy on whale conservation to deal with Japan, a spokesman for Mr Smith said the process was under way.

Here's a thought. Maybe one should reassess one's own values. Naah, that'd be too hard.
Here's another thought. Maybe the recent spate of media hysteria over whaling has convinced Mitsubishi to pull the plug on the car plant in Adelaide? After all, they don't have to keep losing money in Australia and be told they're horrible people for eating whale. You don't think it's possible? Try explaining that to the people who just lot their jobs in Adelaide.
The questions I've been asking recently are, just how far do the media want to drive a wedge between Tokyo and Canberra? And Just how far does Canberra want this to go? At the moment, I feel the Federal Government's been busy dowsing petrol on the flame. Happy Hunting Mr. Rudd. If you thought this was bad, wait until this year's IWC jamboree in May.

Eat Meat?
The strategy of appealing to people's sensitivities regarding cruelty is also getting to the next stage as lamb is targeted as the cruel meat.

Blood in the water, other whales loitering in mournful respect or in suicidal compassion; it's a scene that captures the breathtaking damage and suffering modern humanity can inflict on the landscape and those beings within it.

Take the scene to Japan and many would be in denial. Whale meat is not hard to find in the trendy nosheries in Shinjuku or Roppongi, but few who partake of a whale sashimi would be willing to trace the violent trail of their evening meal.

But many Japanese are horrified that in Australia roast lamb is a favourite meal. While the Japanese Government has somewhat desperately played the kangaroo meat card, with limited effect because few humans eat it and most kangaroos are allowed at least a normal life before their generally quick demise, the horror at the willingness of Australians to send tiny, trembling lambs to the 24/7 industrial death machines known as abattoirs seems to even run deeper in Japan.

There is no doubt there is a similar denial here too. If many lamb eaters were obliged to consider and confront the awful reality of their culinary choices, they would spurn the dish. Yet here denial rears its ugly head again and roast lamb and vegies remains among the most popular meals in this country. Leave your conscience under the napkin.

There is also, of course, the line that if livestock were not reared for meat, various breeds would die out. This angle is odd as it ties species' extinction and the destruction of biodiversity with human consumerism, somehow in an attempt to support the latter. This posits that there is nothing troubling about an animal species dying out because we have no commercial need for them. This also assumes a great deal as there is no compelling evidence that this scenario would eventuate anyway.

It raises a compelling conundrum: if you're a meat eater, are you in a position to criticise Japanese whalers?

Guys, I love lamb. Would I give it up just because it's cruel? I don't know that I would. The rest of this article had this section which goes:

But, the more common arguments on whaling are that it is a) inhumane, b) the whales are endangered or c) whales are highly intelligent beings with a spiritual connection to humans. Other forms of slaughter for meat would be acceptable for many who make such arguments because the last two beliefs do not apply and the first belief is tangled denial.

But, what right do we have to make this judgement? Who are we to decide that one species is worthy of the worst form of abuse and mass slaughter, even extending to its young, simply to express our culinary leanings and/or support an industry, while another species should be saved, at risk of human life if need be?

Either we abhor violence in all forms against creatures with whom we share the planet, or we don't. There is no middle ground. There is no reasonable position that allows mass murder for one species and spirited protection for another. No one can plunge a knife into our planet's ecological and spiritual being with one hand and then apply a massage with the other. Doing so is pathological in the action and hypocritical in the intention.

Those many armchair ecologists and animal welfare people who chow down on their steaks, roast lamb or pork snags while they raise shrill cries in sympathy for the minke and fin whales being helplessly massacred in the Southern Ocean, are lacking the piquant condiment of reality.

So it you aren't exactly willing to give up eating meat for the whale-saving argument, then what are you but a ... hypocrite? *Gong* Okay, the thing is, is being a hypocrite such a bad sin/crime? Our society is filled with unspeakable hypocrisies, and most of us either grin and bear it or just walk on by without batting an eye-lid.
Just the other day, my boss' 7-year old rfeused to talk to me because I allegedly "eat whale".
What kind of hell kind of teacher is teaching THAT!? Thanks 'Straya. You do me proud.

Bio-Crude

CSIRO - Our Tax Payer's Money At Work!
Here's something interesting.

AUSTRALIAN scientists have made a biofuels breakthrough, turning waste products like paper and wood trimmings, crop residue and garden clippings into a stable "bio-crude".

If successfully commercialised, the process could massively reduce the amount of waste going into landfills and help the biofuels industry steer clear of the controversial food versus fuel debate. Most of the world's biofuel is made from food crops such as corn and sugar. Many oppose biofuels because they believe they will lead to higher food prices and hunger among the poor.

The great hope is second-generation technology that enables fuel to be made from waste material like the stalks and leaves of food crops.

Using the process developed by the CSIRO and Monash University, bio-crude could be made on-site at the likes of timber mills then trucked or piped to a refinery to be turned into a petrol substitute.

Steven Loffler from CSIRO Forest Biosciences said the new process had taken 18 months to develop and the key breakthrough was producing a bio-crude that was stable enough to be stored and transported.

Until now, bio-crude made from waste quickly broke down and became useless.

"By making changes to the chemical process, we've been able to create a concentrated bio-crude which is much more stable than that achieved elsewhere in the world," Dr Loffler said.

"This makes it practical and economical to produce bio-crude in local areas for transport to a central refinery, overcoming the high costs and greenhouse gas emissions otherwise involved in transporting bulky green wastes over long distances."

Biofuel production in Australia is still minor. This sort of innovation could turn it all around.

Super Tuesday

I Don't Get This, Dude

In my neck of the woods, many of my friends think it would be good if Barrack Obama got up over Hillary Clinton. I'm actually surprised at the swell of support Mr. Obama gets from those around me. Now, I'm not a Hillary supporter as you know, and I'm sure as hell not a Republican supporter. Indeed, my horse isn't even running in this race, and that's Mr. Al Gore - Well, that's according to a questionaire I took on News.com.au. : my concerns lineup the most with those of Mr. Gore. A distant second was Mrs. Clinton, and not Mr. Obama. That was a little surprising.

Heck, even the Kennedys have flocked in force to support him, and not the 'Billary' election machine. This must mean that Mr. Obama is the keen-bean candidate for the idealistic, the youthful, the change-desiring sort. It's very strange to me. It seems to me that in a fight for Political Correctness, a White Woman should trump a Black Man any day. (Oddly enough, even the white women around me think Barrack Obama is a better candidate than Hilary Clinton. Weird. )
Mr. Obama has won the primary in Georgia, and people are rushing to count him the winner.

Georgia: Senator Barack Obama won the Georgia Democratic primary today, boosting his bid for the party's US presidential nomination by defeating rival Hillary Clinton in a key Southern state where the two had actively courted black voters, US media projected.

Georgia was the first state to go for Obama in voting on Super Tuesday, so-called because nearly half of the US states are holding contests to choose Republican or Democratic candidates for the November general election.

The bit I really don't get is this: If Barrack Obama becomes the POTUS, it won't be long before he's in some motorcade somewhere in the South and a portable missile launched from a grassy knoll finds its way into his face and explodes. I mean, there are a lot of crazy racist white people out there in America. Does this guy really want to win and chance these possibilities?

I mean do people, especially Americans, really believe that their nation has come such a long way as to accept a black man as POTUS? Or is it a case whereby even a black man is better than a woman?
I just think voting for Barrack Obama is like voting for the big disappointment for when he gets whacked.

White Chicks

As the day has gone on, it's looking a bit more in favor of Hillary. The thing that depresses me about the Hillary candidacy apart from how predictable it was for her to run in 2008, is how she would be going into the White House with all the baggage from the previous Clinton administrations. If you add in 2 terms with GW Bush and 1 term of George Herbert Walker Bush, we're talking about 5 going on 6 terms of the Presidency being shared between two families/households. Regardless of personal merit, this does not reflect well on the health of American politics - it screams 'oligarchy' . So the other thing that I just don't get is how little choice there is in any of this stuff, and how it all came to pass.

Maharishi Dead at 91

The Not So-Sexy-Anymore-Sadie, the Maharishi has passed away.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian guru to the Beatles and millions of meditators, has died at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, a spokesman says.

"He died peacefully at about 7pm (0500 Wednesday AEDT)," spokesman Bob Roth said late yesterday.

Roth said the cause of death was yet to be established, but it appeared to be "natural causes, his age".

He probably took the drugs Heath Ledger took. All Things Must Pass.

NY Giants Win Superbowl XLII!

Who Cares?

I have to admit, I didn't until halftime when I saw that the Giants were up. Then the Patriots came back. Then the Giants miraculously snuck ahead with 35 seconds to go. Great drama and "New York Wins!"... except it's the wrong sport.

I'm a baseball fan who doesn't care about football. The Super Bowl was, I believe, the second game I've watched this season. But I watched the Giants upset the Patriots with all the fervor and enthusiasm of a lifelong pigskin enthusiast.

Why did I care at all, let alone so passionately? It all goes back to 2002, when the Pats won their first Super Bowl. What did the fans chant at the victory parade? "Yankees suck! Yankees suck!" It seemed appropriate, somehow, given that the Yanks, who at the time were the four-time defending American League champions, had been driving stakes through the Red Sox's hopes and dreams for over three quarters of a century. No mere football team could erase a pain so deep and long-lasting, but at least they gave Bostonians an opportunity to vent during the off-season.

Back in '02, this lifelong New Yorker and Yankees fan was happy that the Pats had one (sic) the big one, given that New England sports fans had endured a 16-year drought without any of their sports franchises winning a dang thing. And I enjoyed the "Yankees suck!" chants, in a way that only a sports fan who'd grown used to winning, and winning often, could enjoy them.

Six years later, the tables had turned, in a huge way. The Red Sox had won not one, but two World Series, and had stomped on the Yanks on the way to the first one. And if that's not bad enough for New York sports fans, the Celtics currently have the best record in the NBA while the Knicks stumble through yet another pathetic, embarrassing season. And the Patriots were chasing not only their fourth Super Bowl title this decade, but the title of Greatest Team In The History Of The NFL. And only the Giants stood in their way.

So I watched the Super Bowl not as a Giants fan, but as a Yankees fan desperate for some measure of revenge, even if it was in a different sport.

I don't think I'd ever heard the name Plaxico Burress until about a month ago, but now the man is my hero. And Eli Manning didn't just invent the cotton gin, he's a heck of a quarterback as well.

A New York team spoiled the Patriots' perfect season AND derailed the Boston sports juggernaut. While I wait for the long winter to end and get ready for pitchers and catchers to report, life is sweet.

Go Big Blue! Red Sox suck!

That just about sums up how I felt about it. I'm only vaguely a NFL fan. I like it less than at least 3 other codes of football. I'll never claim to be a Giants fan, though the last time they won, I happened to watch all of that game. Still, can't say I'm a big Giants fan at all - But I do like rubbing NY rubbing Boston's nose in it. That part of it, I do like.
Pitchers and Catchers report very soon, thank goodness.

UPDATE:

Check out this Reebok link. That was fast. :)
Also, here's that catch.

Arnold Supports John McCain

Lousy Spam!
This came in the spam today:

Dear Friend,

Today, I am endorsing John McCain to be the next president of the United States because I am interested in a great future for our nation. He is an American hero and an extraordinary leader. He has the experience, character and judgment to confront the challenges we face and a proven track record of getting things done, despite the obstacles.

I trust John McCain to reinvigorate our economy, cut taxes, eliminate wasteful spending and to make Washington work to produce results for the people of this country. He has spent the last two decades standing up for American taxpayers. He understands the best way to move our economy forward is to allow families to keep more of what they earn, not the government.

And he's a crusader, has a great vision, in protecting the environment and also simultaneously protecting the economy. He has incredible credentials in national security, and he is an outstanding public servant who values real action over rhetoric. He is a leader in the mold of Ronald Reagan and proven time and again that in every decision he makes, he puts America first.

Please join me in supporting John McCain for president on Tuesday, February 5th. And, take the time today to become part of John McCain's California Team by signing up at California.JohnMcCain.com.

Sincerely,

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

P.S. Please forward this message to your friends and family and ask them to join me in supporting John McCain for President. John McCain is a great American hero and an extraordinary leader with the experience, character and judgment to confront the challenges we face.

Now, I'm a big Arnie fan so I've been trying to read this with an Arnie accent for some time and I have come to the conclusion it is rather difficult to make it stick. Thus I have concluded, this was ghost-written for him.
If Arnie had written it, it would read more like this:

Dear Friend,

Today, I am endorsing John McCain to be the next tribal elder of Cimmeria because I am interested in chaotic, mayhem-ridden sword and sorcery action. He is a Cimmerian hero and an extraordinary leader - but he does not have muscles quite like me. He has the strength, power and the riddle of steel to confront the challenges we face and a history of slaying the enemy, despite the snake cult of Set.

I trust John McCain to reinvigorate our women and children through exercise, eliminate wasteful fat and to make Everybody work out to produce healthier results for the people of this country. He has spent the last two decades slaying the enemy, plundering the coasts, pillaging the mountainside and sometimes raping vestal virgins from the Sacred Temple of Thoth Amon - but he's not a bad man. He understands the best way to move our campaign forward is to allow more people to swing their swords, not the Althing.

And he's a crusader, and he promises to slay Muslims, Jews and other heathens like Scientologists. He has a great vision that came to him after he ate the sacred mushrooms, in protecting the virtuous maidens and also simultaneously protecting the fire in the forge. He has incredible credentials in necromancy, and he is an outstanding warrior/thief who values real action over poetic tirades. He is a leader in the mold of Genghis Khan, Attila The Hun, Alaric the Vandal; and proven time and again that in every decision he makes, he puts himself first.

Please join me in supporting John McCain for tribal elder on Tuesday, February 5th. And, take the time today to become part of John McCain's Cimmeriam Team by signing up at the wall on the city of Shem. Everybody gets a free rat on a sekwer.

All Hail Crom,

Arnold the Schwarzenegger

P.S. Please carrier pigeon this message to your friends and kinsmen and ask them to suppor John McCain for tribal elder. John McCain is a great Cimmerian hero and an extraordinary warrior with the might, strength, and bloodthirstiness to confront the challenges we face in the Hyborean Age.

It reads better, yeah?

My Song Of The Week

Another Bloody Cover

I know, I know, but check this out. I've teamed up with 'Dave M' in England to do a version of 'The Rover'.
Dave M. provides the full-throated British Rock vocals instead of me weedling my way through this Rock Monolith iconic classic number. He's very good, yes he is!
So do check it out right here.

Yankees Hotstove Update

Morgan Ensberg Signs Minor League Contract

Before I forget, I just want to note that the Yankees signed Morgan Ensberg to a minor league contract.

Morgan Ensberg has played only one game at first base in seven major league seasons, so he does not know how hard it will be to learn that position for the Yankees this spring. But he has a theory.

“I’ll just take a million ground balls,” Ensberg said Thursday. “That’s how you do it. You learn it by repetition, and that’s what I plan to do.”

The Yankees signed Ensberg to a minor league deal Thursday and invited him to spring training. A former All-Star third baseman, Ensberg will compete with Shelley Duncan, Wilson Betemit and his former Houston teammate Jason Lane for playing time at first base.

“When I looked at all the options available, certainly I felt like the opportunity here was the best shot at playing every day,” Ensberg said.

Ensberg, 32, hit .283 with 36 homers and 101 runs batted in for Houston in 2005. He hurt his shoulder the next June, required two cortisone shots and stayed in the lineup as the Astros struggled for runs.

Ensberg said he should have sat out for a month and recovered fully. He drew 101 walks, but his average tumbled to .235.

The Astros traded Ensberg to San Diego in July. After straining an oblique muscle in mid-August, he had only 16 at-bats after Sept. 1 and finished the year hitting .230 with 12 home runs and 39 R.B.I.

“Last year just seemed to be a continuation of the second half of ’06,” said Ensberg, who would earn $1.75 million if he makes the roster. “It was discouraging. With the Yankees, especially with that lineup, guys are in scoring position all the time. I’m really excited about the opportunity.”

Ensberg, a right-handed batter, could make an impact in a platoon role. Over 560 career at-bats against left-handers, he has a .284 average, 35 home runs, 95 R.B.I. and a .406 on-base percentage.

Darn it, I quoted it all. What the heck. What's so special here?
Well, if you cast your mind back to when A-Rod opted out, the back-up plan for 3B was Wilson Betemit plus platoon partner. The most mooted name was Morgan Ensberg who has been a solid 3B glove as well as having a solid OBP. He also mashes lefties, which basically suited the identikit of "Betemit's platoon Partner".
After A-Rod wove himself back into the fold, it seemed like a dead issue but clearly Brian Cashman thinks Ensberg still has something left in the tank and is worth the gamble.
It's interesting to note that Betemit will be candidate No.1 to play 1B with a platoon partner in either Shelley Duncan or Morgan Ensberg. Either way a healthy Ensberg would add much needed right-handed depth behind A-Rod, Posada and Duncan.

With 12 pitchers, the Yankees have 5 OFs in Abreu, Cabrera, Damon, Matsui and Duncan.
They'll have 2 catchers in Posada and Molina. That leaves 6 IF spots for Cano, Jeter, A-Rod, Giambi, Betemit, Ensberg. It's a very good signing.
It's kind of weird to be a Yankee fan and celebrate not getting Johan Santana and celebrating a minor league contract for Morgan Ensberg, but that's how it is under the current front office policies.