Wow, that's a lot of ground to cover. Especially since on a personal note, I had to break into my own home today after losing my keys sometime during my 10 hour work shift. Lost and founds have been consulted to no avail.
Anyways, first off ALCS Game 2: Detroit had a bit of a tougher go this time, but when you exclude players named after board game companies, Oakland played a lousy game. Jason Kendall went 1-for-5. Big Hurt had no hits in five hurting at bats, striking out three times. Eric Chavez 1-for-5, Nick Swisher hitless in three, 0-for-4 for Scutaro. Mark Kotsay got a couple hits as well, but it just wasn't enough. Excluding Bradley, Detroit won 8-1 (and excluding Perez and Inge, every player made it on base...Inge also contributed with a sacrifice). Unlike Game 1, there was no real pitching dual (6.75 ERAs for both Verlander and Ledezma who relieved him, and Loaiza/Street having a 10.29 combined ERA. Detroit's later bullpen performers (excluding, curiously enough, Zumaya) did go without allowing a single run, which kept the Tigers on top and gave them a 2-0 series lead. Game 3 should be another pitching duel, and I have to say Oakland is certainly expected to win this time: Harden versus Kenny Rogers. But we'll see what happens over the next 54 outs, shan't we?
And now time to address something that has bothered me ever since I left for work with my beloved keys in hand for the last time:
The death of Cory Lidle is another lousy media break for the New York Mets.
No, seriously! The Mets swept the former Brooklyn Dodgers on October 7th, guaranteeing themselves a trip to the NLCS with home advantage. Half of New York discussed it, the other half concerned themselves with the Tigers taking a 2-1 series lead that same day. October 8th, the Mets basked in silent glory while across the sports world papers announced that A-Rod had stunk up another playoff series. October 9th, the world woke up to see that St. Louis had been chosen as the Mets' opponent, and the news was all Yankee talk: would Torre get the boot? ABC reported Torre had already been quietly forced out. October 10th, Steinbrenner announced Torre was staying, and again the Mets sat on the sidelines as the Yankee-killing Detroit Tigers took the baseball press.
Well finally it was October 11th, 2006. The New York Mets were about to kick off their National League Championship battle verus the winningest franchise in baseball history, the St. Louis Cardinals. Pujols versus Delgado. Traschel versus Carpenter. The Mets series is about to explode into high gear...and New York Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle turns out to be at the centre of the "hard news" story that CNN had been watching all afternoon. The Mets literally can't buy a break, it seems!
It turns out the Mets can buy one break: the NLCS was rained out for Game One, and as a result will be Thursday. Weaver is still likely to get the start, but whether ace Carpenter will be Game 2 or Game 3 is still up for grabs. Jeff Suppan will play the game Carpenter doesn't. Anthony Reyes will be the Game 4 starter, and Weaver for Game 5. The rain delay really ends up being a "Game 5 coster" as both teams will play a starter on 3 days rest. The nature of the beast, I suppose.
I'm still mad about losing my keys, by the way. The key to the Avadh Bhatia Physics Building was on that keychain, and I don't have the clout to get a replacement key.
Anyways, whats next? Ahh, North Korea.
Kim Ill Jong or Kim Jong Ill or Ill King Jong or whatever he is, he knows that there won't be much fallout. Already China is hemming and hawwing and using the (dis)United Nations to stall efforts to curb North Korea. The Hindustan Times is already arguing that there's nothing wrong with "another superpower" to counter Bush's evil United Satan of America [apparently they've never heard of "China" -ed] North Korea is threatening Japan as they vow for further tests.
The further tests may be interesting. Swedish research and French intelligence indicates that the test may not have been wholly successful. The North Koreans were using conventional explosives to compress plutonium to the extent that the mean free path of escaping neutrons is reduced to the point where a chain reaction occurs. Step one is assembling your critical mass. Step two is quickly imploding it so that the force of the explosion can push the mass in long enough for the chain reaction. Step three is standing really really far away. The question is the yield of the device. If the French are right (it's been known to happen, the Americans and South Koreans agree with them while the Russians don't), then this bomb was a dud. It may not even have qualified as a dirty bomb if set off in a Nebraska cornfield. It certainly would level a city block or two, but any decent bomb can do that: see McVeigh, Timothy. Nevertheless, if the Koreans failed, they barely did so. Next time they might succeed. The next bomb test after that might not be underground near Kusŏng, it might be overground in Vienna. So this is bad. Very bad.
Naturally, the left is pretty much universally on the side of the North Koreans. Even when they aren't, they are. Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman and Coulter's Love Child? Nah. See for yourself:
When bush delivered his "axis of evil" speech he did put North Korea on his hit list. Any country on that list ..if they didn't get the message are or already in the process of being destroyed.(Ann Coulter already points out why this is nonsense: "Instead of owning up to their ludicrous attacks on Bush and unrestrained praise for Clinton's "peace" agreement, the ponderers once again concluded that Bush was a moron. Bush, it seems, had somehow provoked the North Koreans to build nuclear weapons by being mean to them."
North Korea responded, just as expected. One- build and develop a nuke .Two -test a nuke. In case you haven't noticed that is the only weapon that the US respects.
Iran is responding the same way and you can expect Syria to follow suit...I mean seriously come on ....Your contry is being intimadated by a power that has used nukes before and got away with it. By a country deemed by many to be the biggest terror threat to the planet , pre and post 911. Not enough bandwidth on the internet to list every attrocity.
By a country that creates hitlists and eliminates the people in them (afghans, Iraq's, lebonese) . You can guess who's next. Koreans, Iranins, Syrians.
What would you do? The UN is useless against rouge nations with nukes. Governments are scared of the "yer either with us or against us" remark , includeing Canada. The media has turned into a propaganda machine telling you who the enemy is...when it should be obvious who it is.
Also from the Babble postings:
You neo-con freak, "appeasers" my ass, just who the fuck are you other than one who wants armageddon? If there is a hell, you will be in it for wanting to destroy God's creation. And just Who has been appeasing North Korea? Maybe if there would have been some appeasement going on they would not have developed nuke capabilities.
Limit the casualities on our side? And just who in fuck's side is that? Certainly not my side!
Wow what a good idea. If they where not always butting their nose into other countries business(not every country is strategic) Then things wouldn't be looking so grim as we get set for world war 3. Thanks for that insight maybe you should share it with the states. Heck if they had taken your advice a long time ago then Cuba wouldn't be under an embargo, 9/11 would never have happened, Iraq wouldn't have been invaded(again), hell we might even have 2 nations with jerusalem as each of their capitals with no wall. But lets continue with all the intervention...seems to have worked well so far.
North Korea now (allegedly) possesses a few measly, rudimentry nuclear weapons, while the USA has, what, 11,000? Am I supposed to give a shit? I'm against all nukes - American, French, Chinese, Korean, etc.
A week ago, there were approximatley 15,000 known nukes in the world. Now we can assume there are 3 or 4 more. Big fucking deal. If the USA had gotten serious about non-proliferation when they held all the bargaining chips, we wouldn't be in this mess. But thanks to the US thirst for power, the whole world is at risk (nuclear, environmental, poverty, etc).
So no luck on a good result in North Korea. Jack Layton and his secret agenda are up to no good again, and intelligent commentary on the subject is shouted down by a bunch of angry granola crunchers. Sigh for us on this one, will you?
