Archive for August 28, 2009

Intoxicated by the heady drug of victory…

Posted: August 28, 2009 by datechguy in baseball, gaming, hobbies, Sable Baseball
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…I find myself unready to make the last two trades that I should in the Sable Baseball league that I’m playing in.

I made a big trade at the all star break with the team in first, Picking up 5 players: Tori Hunter, Armando Galarraga, Adam Lind, Kevin Millwood and Orlando Cabrera for Jose Reyes who had an incredible card last year but will be a “fringe player” (unusable in our league) next year. (Dynasty Baseball generates cards based on the previous years performance). I also added from wavers veteran Omar Vizquel as extra defense and hit and run ability off the bench.

Since then I’ve gone 9-6 including series wins against three different playoff teams. Ironically I’ve gone 8-5 since Losing my starting first baseman and right fielder to injury (yes your players can get injured and suspended in this game). Hunter is hitting over 300 and has 5 homers in 15 games. Galarraga is 3-0 with one ND and in his first relief appearance for me came into a bases loaded no outs situation and struck out Pat Burrell and Lance Berkman before coaxing a ground out from Nick Markakis to end the inning. The team was so inspired they managed to score 7 (including a Solo Shot to start the inning and a two run triple from David Wright who won the previous game with a walkoff homer in the 12th) in the 6th to win 11-6. The team has not lost any game that Galarraga has appeared in.

Our trading deadline in in two weeks. Galarraga will not have a valuable card next year and Milton Bradley (.436 OBP last year, best on my team) is unlikely to be kept with Jason Bay in Left. Both have very high trade value. I have three teams I will need to pass in order to make the playoffs. Although next year I will not be managing this team (I’m league treasurer and took over when a player moved to Minnesota) the greatest value I can get for these players is right now…

…but looking at my remaining schedule It’s very possible that I can go 10-5 and perhaps even 12-3. I’ll be playing three of the teams I need to pass and I finish against the best team in the league that will have clinched their playoff spot long before then and resting starters to avoid injury or suspension. This team is clicking I KNOW I have a chance…

…but It is still much more likely I’ll go 8-7 or 7-8 but I just can’t bring myself to give up.

My next series is the last one before the trading deadline. If I manage win 2 of 3 I just HAVE to go for it.

Are you a fantasy baseball player? What do you think?

Oh and if you live in Central Massachusetts and are interested in taking over an up and coming team next year, let me know in comments and I’ll have our league commissioner contact you about our spot in our 22 year old tabletop league.

Out of the mouth of babes…

Posted: August 28, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech
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…well out of the mouth of a new graduate.

Because I have the greatest filial love for my alma mater, I write today as a sorrowful son and disappointed disciple. The Yale that cultivated my faith in the power of knowledge to move the world forward has resorted to censorship. I grieve.

As the News reports today, Yale decided this summer to omit cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad from a book about the fit of violence that swept the Muslim world in their wake four years ago. I can’t help but feel the dismay and embarrassment of a pupil watching his teacher sabotage the foundation of her credibility by betraying the spirit of her most important lesson.

That lesson, which singularly informs the work of a great university, is this: that free dialogue and the unfettered exchange of ideas fuels human progress. A great university is a place where these activities are protected and encouraged. But Yale forfeited this most basic role, pleading that it did not want to be responsible for tension that counterterrorism authorities speculate could still provoke protests and bloodshed.

(with apologies to Glenn Reynolds) You know they said that if I voted for George Bush Sarah Palin we would see censorship of art by religious zealots in this country. And they were right!

Allow me to demonstrate how it’s done.

My favorite of the cartoons

My favorite of the cartoons

No Saudi money for me! And I could really use it.

Hey I hear the president’s supporters are hiring!

A real profile in courage

Posted: August 28, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech
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An Art Gallery in Denmark shows Yale how it’s done:

A Danish gallery has decided to exhibit a caricature of Muhammad that unleashed a wave of protests in the Muslim world against Denmark in 2006. Citing an article in magazine Sappho, Agence France-Presse reports that the controversial caricature will be part of a larger exhibition dedicated to the watercolor works of the artist-caricaturist Kurt Westergaard at the Galleri Draupner in Skanderborg.

This is called actually speaking truth to power, as opposed to taking instruction from power as the NEA seems to be promulgating:

The NEA is the nation’s largest annual funder of the arts. That is right, the largest funder of the arts in the nation – a fact that I’m sure was not lost on those that were on the call, including myself. One of the NEA’s major functions is providing grants to artists and arts organizations. The NEA has also historically shown the ability to attract “matching funds” for the art projects and foundations that they select. So we have the nation’s largest arts funder, which is a federal agency staffed by the administration, with those that they potentially fund together on a conference call discussing taking action on issues under vigorous national debate. Does there appear to be any potential for conflict here?

Discussed throughout the conference call was a hope that this group would be one that would carry on past the United We Serve campaign to support the President’s initiatives and those issues for which the group was passionate. The making of a machine appeared to be in its infancy, initiated by the NEA, to corral artists to address specific issues. This function was not the original intention for creating the National Endowment for the Arts.

A machine that the NEA helped to create could potentially be wielded by the state to push policy. Through providing guidelines to the art community on what topics to discuss and providing them a step-by-step instruction to apply their art form to these issues, the “nation’s largest annual funder of the arts” is attempting to direct imagery, songs, films, and literature that could create the illusion of a national consensus. This is what Noam Chomsky calls “manufacturing consent.”

I guess this is the soviet Chicago way of making art.

I’ll wager that there will be no Saudi money going to the Galleri-draupner anytime soon.

Via Glenn.

You know as long as they aren’t talking about Sarah Palin…

Posted: August 28, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…Morning Joe is you know just a fun show.

They tend not to take themselves too seriously and the humor isn’t forced. It almost seems like a Jay & Silent Bob movie without the F this or F that, ok, it has that too but only once. (The real profanity of the clip is Barnicle suggesting that the President is really “moderate and pragmatic” ah those halacon days of yesteryear when (some) people still thought president Obama was moderate.

If I could only skip every MSNBC promo it would really be good, but once they mention Sarah Palin they almost instantly revert to Full MSM mode.

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