This blog has moved. This page serves as the anchor for archives from 2002 through 2004. For the current page, please click here.
Friday, July 23, 2004
The Center for American Progress has an excellent dissection, full of links to evidence, of this week's Repo effort to reduce the attention given to the 9/11 commission's report (scroll down to "9/11 Attack and Distract").
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Go view a truly, amazingly funny Shockwave animation of how the presidential candidates look to most of us ordinary people.
A judge in Yukon "changed the territory's common-law definition of marriage to mean the voluntary union for life of two people to the exclusion of all others" (Seattle Times). So same-sex marriage is now legal there as it is in Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia, although the Canadian Supreme Court will take up the issue nationally in October.
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
I can't believe the resources Cathy is getting access to. (For the story on her cancer treatment, see our family home page.)
Cathy's surgeon, Dr. Michael Baker, is Chairman of the Department of Surgery and Chief of the Division of General and Vascular Surgery at the local hospital (John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek). He has published more than 50 articles and is a Navy reserve Rear Admiral (his Navy bio), currently assigned as Commander, Naval Medical Forces Korea.
Her oncologist, Dr. Michael Sherman, was most recently a researcher at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, part of a private biomedical research institution affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco. He has published more than 25 articles and received almost two dozen research awards and distinctions, and is a co-holder of patent #6,664,040, Compositions and methods of delivery of a molecule into a cell.
Her plastic surgeon, Dr. Nouri Ghorbani (his web page) is a former Chairman of the Plastic Surgery Section at John Muir and has been rated "best in the Bay Area" by several publications.
The genetic counsellor Cathy has been referred to, Patricia Kelly Ph.D. (her page), has written a book titled Assess Your True Risk of Breast Cancer.
I couldn't pass this up, but it definitely qualifies as a cheap shot. (So, I admit to being cheap.) The script for Sen. John Cornyn's (R-Tex.) speech before the Heritage Foundation included this line, quoted in the Washington Post (he didn't say it out loud, though, so this was probably some staffer going over the top):
It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right. . . . Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife.
Transportation Security Dept. personnel are often just petty tyrants.
Sunday, July 11, 2004
3:15 p.m.: We caught up with Cathy again in Golden Gate Park. At four o'clock the closing ceremony began, with all 180 cancer survivor walkers (including Cathy) up front in light pink shirts, then the 1700+ supporter walkers, then the 200+ crew and police escorts, and several hundred family and friends all around. She did it!
10:30: We cheered walkers along the Embarcadero, across the street from the S.F. ferry building. And along came Cathy! We had a great time congratulating her... and that was her limit, 5 miles. She caught the "sweep vehicle" at that point for a shuttle ride to the lunch center.
8:30 a.m.: Cathy called from Marina Green, she's just underway.
Saturday, July 10, 2004
9:00 p.m.: After dancing to the live music for a while, Cathy's in her tent for the night.
(Not a walk update this time...) 5:47 p.m., July 10: Sally Ann said, "I'm not hungry right now." I was speechless for a full minute.
2:30: Back at "Wellness Village", the tent town (at San Francisco's Crissy Field) where the walkers will spend the night. Cathy walked all the way to Mill Valley for a total of 13 miles, then shuttled back; my sister, her family, and my mom have met up with Cathy for a little while. The village has some shopping and medical/massage type areas (but Cathy is getting reiki massage from my brother-in-law!), and there will be entertainment for the walkers after dinner.
12:15: Cathy and the rest of the Contra Costa Canal Gal team are eating lunch in Sausalito, 10 miles in. Her friends Sally, Tom, and Laura have met her to eat also. Cathy feels sure she can make the 3 more miles to Mill Valley, her goal for the day.
9:05 a.m.: They're in the Presidio, about to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. About a mile and a half so far. (Note from later: turns out there was a huge bottleneck of walkers getting out of Golden Gate Park!)
7:50 a.m.: Cathy called to report that she got a little teary at today's "opening ceremony", but that she's now a mile and a half into the route and doing well. It sounds as thought she had a lot of fun at the check-in, dinner, and hotel last night.
Friday, July 9, 2004
A new case of breast cancer is diagnosed every three minutes in the U.S.
This weekend is the San Francisco Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. You can donate to the cause on Cathy's page; and if you're in the city, you can come out and support the walkers at several places and times leading up to a "closing ceremony" Sunday at 4 (Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park).
The California state superintendent of education, in a TV-taped library visit, teased a 6-year-old girl, saying her name (Isis) meant "stupid dirty girl." He should resign.
Wednesday, July 7, 2004
What happens when the crises compound each other is that you try to continue to do everything, then more than everything. This eventually fails, which is why I realized today that my "daily reads" were actually about biweekly. (Geez, Atrios was already pretty good, but now he's got staff too! When did that happen?! Just ten minutes skimming this week's posts makes me wish I could catch up on a dozen other blogs...)
My wife is scheduled for surgery at the end of July, so expect continued intermittent blogging throughout the summer. Whining about Bush is enjoyable, but I just can't find enough time to do it well.
Mark Lew read Kevin Phillips' book on the Bush family. Mark's review is wonderful, not only because it distills the litany of Bush/Enron connections and adds to Phillips' collection of dynastic Senate seats, but especially because of Mark's suggestions for the press:
Either religion is affecting politics or it's not, but refusing to talk about it doesn't make it any less so. If our President is engaging in faith-based policymaking, then we ought to know about it, for better or for worse. I can think of a whole lot of questions I'd like to hear some reporter ask the president:
- Do you believe that members of the U.S. Congress should use scripture as a guideline for determining law? (Same question for judges interpreting the law.)
- Is prayer an effective strategy for making America more safe from terrorism? Is your opponent less qualified to implement this strategy than you are?
- Do you believe Armageddon is coming in our lifetime? If so should our foreign policy try to prevent it or bring it to be?
- The Pope says the war in Iraq is not a just war. Is he right or wrong?
- Do you believe that you were chosen by God to be our nation's leader?
There's a lot more in the review: population comparisons of various nations, how not to measure government, the usual Lew typsetting notes... go check it out.
An expert researcher/reporter recently concluded that "George W. Bush was considered a deserter by the United States Air Force." (Hat tip to Orcinus, who has been on this story throughout.)
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Rights? We don' need no steenkeen rights
Jack Balkin's Balkinization has a clear summary of the various "enemy combatant" Supreme Court decisions this week.
Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz have both recently blamed problems in Iraq on the media... and they did it in press conferences, because they were certain that no reporter would stand up to them. A recap of the links, and of a few reporters' belated reactions, is at the DCCC's blog.
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Jayson Stark has an extensive Useless Baseball Information column.
Follow-up to my All-Star ballot: Even though I recognize that big names will always have an advantage in fan voting, I'm still struggling to believe that Derek Jeter (.266 / 13 HR / 39 RBI / 6 SB) and Nomar Garciaparra (.233 / 1 / 9 / 1) are miles aheads of everyone else in the AL SS race. Jeter at least is having a solid season (though still below AL standards), but Nomar has only played 15 games! Every year some guy who's injured or stinking up the league gets a ton of votes based on what he has done in past years. Nomar shouldn't be anywhere near the top, with Michael Young (.327 / 10 / 45 / 7), Miguel Tejada (.313 / 12 / 63), and Carlos Guillen (.312 / 11 / 52) all blowing him away this season.
Ditto for Johnny Damon in AL OF. And nobody should be voting for Ichiro Suzuki when Carl Crawford is the same defensively and has almost identical Triple Crown numbers ... but has half again as many runs, double the steals, and even four times as many triples! (No, I didn't vote for Crawford either; I think Matt Lawton is having a slightly better year at the plate and is far more valuable in the field. I only choose Crawford because he's Ichiro's nearest stat-twin.)
Renteria and Everett for NL SS? I'll see both those guys and raise you 60+ batting points and 120+ slugging points with Jack Wilson. (Again, all three are dead ringers defensively.)
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Offline at times, unpredictable always
Imminent death of blogging, film at eleven, as one of my authors would say. My wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer, so I don't expect to be very interested in posting here. Full story on our family home page, and go visit her page on the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer site to donate to the cause.
General principles: I like batting average and rank by that first; then I look at overall power, speed, and defense in that order. If a guy can lead his position in both home runs and stolen bases, that will usually overcome my requirement that All-Stars should be batting a minimum of .300.
American League:
- 1B: Frank Thomas; a couple of weeks ago this would have been Rafael Palmeiro, but Thomas has gotten even hotter.
- 2B: Alfonso Soriano.
- SS: Michael Young; yes, two Rangers! Tough crowd here; neither Jeter nor Garciaparra can crack the top five (Guillen, Tejada, Valentin, and Eckstein are all having better years)!
- 3B: Alex Rodriguez; I would prefer to see Mora or Blalock in the All-Star game, but I have to be honest about who's having the best season.
- C: Ivan Rodriguez.
- OF: Vladimir Guerrerro, Manny Ramirez, Matt Lawton.
National League:
- 1B: Sean Casey
- 2B: Jeff Kent; I dislike Kent because he doesn't appreciate baseball as a game, but he is clearly the best of the group in this weak slot.
- SS: Jack Wilson; just as the AL left side (SS/3B) is incredibly strong, the NL middle infield is really poor.
- 3B: Scott Rolen
- C: Paul LoDuca; gotta have a Dodger, and Piazza (the slightly better offensive candidate) is a defensive disaster who's changing positions.
- OF: Barry Bonds, Bobby Abreu, Lance Berkman; you have to love the combination of power and speed Abreu is showing.
