Archive for September, 2009

Talk about a pay cut

Posted: September 18, 2009 by datechguy in baseball
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I noticed in the paper today that Worcester’s Cam am entry lost game 3 of the Cam Am championship series:

The Capitales have won the last two games and lead the series, 2-1.

Worcester pitcher Zach Zuercher allowed 7 hits and 5 runs in 7 innings, while striking out 5.

The Capitales took a 2-0 lead in the second, on an RBI single and a Zuercher balk that scored Dany Scalabrini.

Worcester scored its only run in the fifth when Alex Peña led off with a double and took third on a wild pitch before Yohanny Valera (2 for 3) drove him in with a single, cutting the lead to 2-1.

If you don’t know the Canadian/American Association of professional Baseball. Worcester is less than 30 minutes away and they are playing for the Championship. Fun little league, ticket prices a person can afford, nice game. The league draws an average of between 1,100 and 3,500 people a game over 39 games. The real surprise of the day however was the first line of the story:

Worcester couldn’t solve Eric Gagné, as the former Cy Young Award winner threw a complete-game six-hitter while striking out eight to give Quebec a 5-1 win in Game 3 of the Can-Am League championship series last night at Stade de Quebec.

Eric Gagne? I know Quebec is his home town but he can’t be making more than 20-25k pitching for them.

To get some perspective

Eric Gagne 2003

Eric Gagne of the Los Angeles Dodgers became the first relief pitcher in 11 years to win a Cy Young Award, easily beating San Francisco’s Jason Schmidt for the National League honor.

Gagne, who converted all 55 of his save opportunities, received 28 of 32 first-place votes and 146 points in balloting released Thursday by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Salary $550,000

Eric Gagne 2008

The Brewers have signed Eric Gagne to a 1-year, $10 million dollar contract to serve as their closer

How the mighty have fallen.

Speaking of costs, what is the actual goal?

Posted: September 18, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , , , , ,

Speaking more of the Missile stuff it also a question of the deterrent value I have another question. What is the actual goal? If the goal is deterrence that you might not get what you are paying for. Consider the following:

Situation A: There are missiles deployed in and controlled by Poland and a threat (any threat) comes up. It is a question of Poland defending itself. It can employ it’s defense on their own terms. It doesn’t have to involve the US at all in terms of blood and treasure once they are deployed.

Situation B: The missiles are on a US ship and a threat comes up. It then becomes a question of the United States opening fire on another nation and all the political and geopolitical ramifications involved therein.

Not only are the costs greater for us, but if we decide that for whatever reason we don’t want to pay them, Poland is screwed.

If the goal is actual deterrence then situation A is better than situation B no matter what the technology is.

However if the goal is to appease Russia and Putin then it’s a great plan, but hey not to worry they said it’s ok and it’s not like the Pols think we are selling them out or something. Oh wait:

Strategic ally? Mainstay of our security? End of illusions. United States of America, for which we have for each call, turned his back to us. U.S. President lightly tossed into the trash heap construction of the Poland and the Czech anti-missile shield. The massive military installation was to give special meaning to us in NATO and to strengthen our position towards Russia. But America, instead of Warsaw, he prefers dialogue with Moscow. Yesterday the whole world went round decision Barack Obama Kremlin triumphs, and the Poles have been exposed to the wind.

Hey maybe it’s the Buchanan “Don’t defend Poland and WWII is a fight between Hitler and Russia” plan all over again! Change we can believe in!

Well I’m sure we can straighten it out with the Polish Prime minister, if we was willing to take our calls that is.

Don’t keep putting coins in the machine.

Posted: September 18, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , , , ,

One of the more reasonable arguments concerning the White Houses’ missile defense move is the cost savings it entails. It sounds pretty good but it is deceptive.

First of all political capital and possibility monetary capital was spent to get the permission to put the stuff there in the first place. Now that it will not be deployed that is all now a loss.

Second of all it means if either the technology or threat changes then we would have to spend it all again, only this time we would have less credibility and it would have a higher cost in political and financial capital, in fact it might not even be in time. Sort of like the four stage strategy of diplomacy via Sir Humphrey starting around 6 min in this clip or if you just want the meat at 7:40

If your goal is to actually do nothing then it’s a great plan. If your goal is you know actual deterrence it’s not a good idea. It’s like losing money in a machine and then just putting more in again instead of getting your quarters back first.

But Datechguy you say: Aren’t these missiles actually better than the ground stuff and more flexable? It’s the arugment in the LGF thread on the subject that was offered and here is my answer verbatim:

Those things are true in the physical sense but it is a worse deterrent in a political sense. If a country is under actual threat there is little question in the mind of the potential aggressor that it will use a deterrent under it’s own control on it’s own soil.

If the deterrent is not on their own soil then the political will of the guarantor is taken into effect. Europe’s graveyards are full of casualties of the lack of political will.

That’s why US troops South Korea are a more effective deterrent then a promise to deploy troops would be. It’s also why we actually had troops in Europe instead of relying on a nuclear deterrent. Your more likely to stay in the pot if you already have money in it.

That is the reality.

McCain/Johnson round 5

Posted: September 18, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech
Tags: ,

The 5th round opens with Stacy Landing again, after some initial jabs he throws the left:

In other words, you’re not missing anything at LGF you couldn’t get from Amanda Marcotte or Firedoglake.

The Press release bit is strong and doesn’t even include the Color of Change release.

After a setup punch he then Throws one to the Midsection:

This problem has nothing to do with Pamela. It never was about her — it’s about him. Now, less than two years after the onset of Chronic Degenerative Lizardmania, people are becoming genuinely concerned for Johnson’s well-being.

Myself, I’d be happy if he’d just put up a post called “Autumn Open Thread,” surrender the troll-hammer to one of his evil minions and take about a six-week rest somewhere calm and peaceful with no WiFi access.

That actually isn’t bad general advice, it’s a good thing to walk away from the net some time. You can always have some timed post or general essays to go up if you don’t use a guest blogger.

But then comes the Right:

And enjoy a nice hot cup of STFU, will ya? Stop trying to defend yourself, Charles, or trying to present your monomaniacal fixation as if it were the result of your sudden discovery that everyone who voted for Bush in 2004 has been goose-stepping toward Munich ever since.

Nobody’s buying it any more, Charles. There can be no ideological or political explanation for your behavior. People are calling you “Captain Queeg,” and laughing about it, but it’s really not funny. You need help or one of these days you’ll be shuffling around down by the rail yards muttering to yourself “banned! banned! banned!

But Johnson is not just taking a hit, he rears back and lands the racist and beating black kids cards squarely in the face of…Dan Riehl:

Now there’s true courage. If those black kids had tried something, Dan Riehl was ready. Man, he would have shown them.

Of course, they didn’t try anything. But the potential for serious violence was in the air! He could tell by their “poor diction.”

Oh no. That’s not racist at all.

Read the two posts in question are here You’ll note that the first post is a cache link that includes the deleted comments.

But the bottom line is if there is any counterpunching going on it is in comment threads for other posts, not in new posts themselves and I’m not inclined to search them.

That seems to amount to a TKO but that might be premature, after all a person’s blog is a person’s blog and not letting someone drive what you post may be just rope a dope.

Will McCain continue to strike, I think so. When he actually stops will it be a victory for Johnson? I think not but time will tell.

The more I see however the further I am heading toward Robert Stacy’s corner. Stay tuned.

Update: Never scored it. Clear Round for McCain 10-7, Scoring 49-45 after 5 and the ref is checking the corner to see if Johnson wants to continue.

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