For the last two weeks, we have been on a cruise of Alaska. I have felt like Nero fiddling. Here I am on a plush cruise liner and all I have to worry about is showing up for meals, whale watching tours and my ping pong competition. Yet, from what I’m getting from the TV, it seems like Western culture, as we know it, is sinking into the abyss.
First, we lose a chopper full of Navy Seals. What a disaster. Afghanistan keeps chugging along. Longest war in our Nation’s history. I don’t see an end. I’m not a “cut and run” guy, but I wish some smart people could figure out how to get us out of there. When I hear politicians talking about the importance of giving the Afghan tribesman a democratic system of government with free elections, I want to barf. Where’s McNamara when we need someone to lie to us about the “light at the end of the tunnel.” It is costing us billions each year to carry on the fight and when we leave, it will still cost the Afghan government those same billions. Once we pull out, the billions will not be forthcoming.
Also, while we were watching the Hubbard Glacier calve, the stock market was also calving. Crack, rumble, crash. No “oohs and ahs” on the market. The Hubbard Glacier, unlike our economy is growing. Don’t tell Henny Penny Al Gore. Standard and Poors downgrades the US Treasury Bond. What a joke. S & P are the guys who gave the triple A rating to all the banks right before we had to bail them out. They are partially responsible for the problems in the first place. Then they downgrade the US government bonds.
Then there’s the President. He seems to be a pleasant guy, but he is clearly out of his element. I am satisfied that he is clueless when it comes to running our government. However, he does know how to run a campaign and raise money. He has lots of strategists to help him get reelected and when I hear him talk about jobs, I am satisfied he is only interested in his own. No, that’s not fair. I am sure he would like the unemployment numbers to come down, because that would help him save his job.
He seems to be constantly running for reelection. For the first two years of his presidency, he had large majorities in both houses of Congress (a fillerbuster proof Senate) and he couldn’t even get a budget passed. He hasn’t had a budget passed his entire time. Good grief! He may be the first president who never gets a budget passed. He is still a first term senator that is clueless. When one of his constituents complained to him about high gas prices, he told her to get a more fuel efficient car. We are going to be like a third world country with everyone driving around on a motor scooter.
I am not opposed to universal health care. After all, we are presently paying for the medical care bill of the poor. I believe we are capable of working something out. But the way the Democrats went about the health care bill was unconscionable. Something as significant as universal health care needs to be vetted and debated and bought into by both sides of the isle. I remember the Civil Rights Act during the Johnson Administration. Congress butted heads, but worked together on some equally difficult issues and found solutions. This time, however, we had midnight raiders who pushed through Obamacare, saying things like “you can read it after it is passed.” The president who said he would insist on transparency in government and no more pork was just lying to us because it was expedient.
I’m satisfied that the Supreme Court will declare Obamacare unconstitutional and then we can start over. But, will we? I doubt it. Obama missed his chance, but that is consistent with being clueless. I generally try to put some humor in these blogs, but it’s hard to do when you are ranting. I am definitely ranting.
Let’s move on to Congress. I think most of them are pretty smart. There are a few Weiners, but on the whole they are conscientious people. But members of the House run for reelection every two years and so they are constantly running for reelection. The best way (unfortunately) to get reelected is to attack your opponent. It doesn’t even have to be 100% true. It just has to pass the smell test. With everyone attacking everyone, nothing gets done. The word “statesman” has disappeared from the Washington vocabulary.
Obama has been in office for the better part of three years and his answer to everything on the economy is it’s Bush’s fault. Where is the “change” he kept talking about? I am convinced that Obama plans on putting out an economic recovery plan in September that he knows will be unacceptable to the Republicans. Then, when the Republicans reject it, he will use it as a key point in his reelection campaign. “I had a great plan to get the economy moving, but the Republicans shot it down. They are to blame.” How does that help the American people?
I would like to keep ranting, but I have a ping pong match followed by high tea and dinner.
Written by PJ Rice on www.ricequips.com
Monthly Archives: August 2011
Baseball Stats Gone Wild
Computers are wonderful. You can dump in a bunch of numbers and crunch them until you’re dizzy. That is what is happening with baseball. I know the commentators need to fill dead air, but shouldn’t there be some kind of regulator on the spigot.
“Bob, this is the 36th time that Wiffowitz has come to the plate with a man on first base and less than two outs. And, he has only advanced the runner seven times.” I quickly grabbed my calculator and determined that good old Wiffo has only advanced the runner 22% of the time. What does that mean? Who cares? If Wiffo had bunted everytime, he would have advanced the runner probably over 80% and would be headed for Triple A ball.
I was watching a commercial for a smart phone and they were telling about how you could take all these photos and put them right on Facebook. Thankfully they ended the commercial by saying that just because the smart phone gives you the power to do things doesn’t mean its a good idea. Unfortunately the commercial came too late for Anthony Weiner. But the message is not too late for baseball announcers. Fine, you have all these idiotic stats, but is it a good idea to numb us with them? “Jones is batting .317 in his last seven games” (I guarantee that he isn’t hitting .317 in his last eight games, or for that matter, the season).
Every player has a batting average. That’s nice to know. And it might be helpful to know his average against left handed pitchers and right handed pitchers. I would also like to know if his average goes up or down when runners are in scoring position. But please don’t tell me what his batting average is when the count is two balls and one strike. Enough already!
I was listening to a commentator talk about our local team. He mentioned that if the team only walked three or less batters, their earned run average (ERA) was 2.9. But if the team walked four or more (9 is more than 4), then the ERA jumps to over 4.5. I thought about that. By the use of statistics, he had discovered that putting more men on base resulted in more men scoring. Heavy stuff.
They now keep track of a player’s home run ratio. It tells us whether a player hits a home run every 15th time at bat (on average) or, perhaps, every 32nd time. I guess if Sluggo hits a home run every 15th time and he hasn’t hit a home run in his last 27 times, then the announcer can let us know, “He’s due.” The truth is that Sluggo is probably in a slump. But home team announcers are reticent to say that. They will probably say, “He’s due.”
They have recently come up with a new stat. OPS stands for On Base plus Slugging. If you just think of a players on-base percentage (hits, walks, hit by pitch) divided by times at bat, you have half the formula. The slugging percentage is total bases divided by times at bat. You add the two stats together and you get OPS. It must be significant because the all time OPS leader is Babe Ruth. And they named a candy bar after him.
I’m for coming up with one more stat. Let’s select the warning track power leader. This would go to the guy who hits the most balls that are caught on the warning track (OK, we need to count the balls that hit on the track and are not caught). To select the player with the best warning track power, we will have to deduct home runs from his total. A player with true warning track power doesn’t hit home runs. This is a work in progress. I haven’t ironed out all the issues. So far, I only have the abbreviation – WTP.
Written by PJ Rice on www.ricequips.com