The International House of Bacon

So, for those of you who aren’t baseball/Red Sox fans, Sox pitcher Jon Lester threw a no-hitter tonight against the Royals. Lester’s story is rather interesting - a touted prospect out of high school who struggled in his first stint in the majors, was diagnosed with cancer, then beat it, winning the clinching game of the World Series six months later. Spent the off-season as one of the main bargaining chips in trade talks, stuck around, and now we’re here. 24 year old cancer survivor has pretty much done two of the greatest things a pitcher can do in his career, and it’s all secondary anyway because of what he’s done in his personal life.

Why this is cool:

1) No-hitters are always cool and fun, but this guy is obviously special in a lot of ways, and this one just feels more special because of the story, a story that every Red Sox fan carried with them in some way.

2) This guy had a good chance of not being on this team, and I was a proponent of trading him for someone. I still am in some ways, but talk about finding a way to shut up the doubters like myself for a little bit.

3) Right now, Ian Kennedy is in the minors, Philip Hughes is on the DL, Kei Igawa is Kei Igawa, and the Yankees are looking toward the return of Carl Pavano in July to stop the bleeding.

I love this game.

Still not feeling 100%, but better than yesterday, so let’s see…

* The “big news” was the John Edwards endorsement. I saw this coming if only because dirty populists need to stick together (I’m respectful to a fault toward a lot of ideologies that aren’t mine, but populism crosses a line for me - the rank dishonesty combined with policies that do the opposite of what’s intended is a bit much), but as a wider-scale issue, is an Edwards endorsement really going to help Obama in the general election at this stage? Does Edwards really bring anything to the table that would make the centrist voters that Obama needs give the Democratic ticket a second look? If there’s even a hint of Obama making Edwards the Attorney General, won’t that scare some people off? I don’t see the benefit past the mostly-already-decided Democratic primary, quite frankly.

* In the rare instance Obama does something right, I think it’s my duty to present it: Obama may relax the federal prosecution of medical marijuana, allowing the states more leeway. If we could get him on board for other issues of state’s rights, he might actually be worth someone’s time, but for the moment, let’s applaud him getting one thing right.

* Willisms on taxes and tax policy.

* RedState on Obama’s lack of momentum. He’s lost 7 of the last 10 primaries, and (I think) is likely to split the final ones. It’s an interesting side note to a primary that Obama otherwise has locked up, and the narrative is ultimately what will keep him from truly locking it up in the next few weeks, barring a Clinton withdrawal.

* Related from Rasmussen: nearly 30% of Democrats want to see Clinton run an independent campaign. She’s not that dumb, is she?

* Chicago overturns its foie gras ban. Good move.

* I’m kind of sad I slept through this yesterday: Manny being Manny, 2008 edition. Those of you not seeing Boston baseball on a regular basis are missing out on some really bizarre stuff, let me tell ya…

* The polar bear is set to be an endangered species. One of those bizarre things that the Bush administration has done, and I can’t for the life of me understand why. I’m not predicting economic apocalypse like many others are, but this is a really problematic listing for me, since the full population of bears has risen noticeably over the years. What’s the benefit?

* Proving that New Hampshire’s Democratic leadership does, in fact, wake up from its daze every so often, the income tax proposal they’ve been floating has been put on hold. This has been a bizarre run for a while, and I need to expand further on this when I have the time.

* More Obama mistakes: They apparently speak Arabic in Afghanistan, and we’ve diverted too many agricultural specialists in Iraq. I remember, either in Newsweek or Rolling Stone back during the 2000 election, a long article about Bush’s relative lack of knowledge of world leaders and things of that nature, complete with caricature of Bush at a desk with Condi Rice as the teacher. Somehow, I doubt the media will be printing anything significant like that as the Obama gaffes keep piling up. It’s a bit much to expect a domestic leader to have a strong grasp on all areas of international affairs during the campaign (although you’d think something like this he’d bone up on just a little more, given the Obama narrative), as they will learn on the job, but the treatment of candidates in this area is telling.

* I may have linked to the story earlier, but the dance ban at an Arizona restaurant has been lifted.

* Finally, Spider-Man’s greatest Bible stories.

Still battling a head cold, still wondering why the Red Sox are so high on Jon Lester…

* High school seniors dumb on basic financial information. On one hand, I probably wouldn’t have known the answers to a lot of those questions ten years ago. On the other, why couldn’t I?

* McCain on pre-emptive war: “I don’t think you can make a blanket statement about preemptive war because obviously it depends on the threat that the United States of America faces.” On the face of it, it’s an obvious, “duh” statement. But then you think about how the “100 years in Iraq” comment has been completely twisted out of context, and I fear for how this comment will play, even though it’s the most realistic foriegn policy statement any current Presidential candidate has made. McCain doesn’t consistently deserve the straight talk moniker, but it’s statements like this that keep that concept alive - brutally honest, an answer even he probably doesn’t like, and one that’s certain to get twisted by his opponents, who are really only interested in straight talk when it fits the percieved narrative.

* Time on the shifting gender gap in colleges in favor of women.

* More corruption via red light cameras. It appears that one locality has seven of its ten red light cameras at intersections where the yellow light is quicker than mandated by law.

* Obama, “Constitutional scholar,” supports the Washington, DC gun ban.

* The Volokh Conspiracy had an interesting post about genocide and international law.

* Thomas Sowell nails it: “Nothing is more fraudulent than calls for a ‘dialogue on race.’ Those who issue such calls are usually quick to cry ‘racism’ at any frank criticism. They are almost invariably seeking a monologue on race, to which others are supposed to listen.”

* Also via Volokh, religious accomodations and business collide. A company is reprimanded by the government of New Mexico for refusing to photograph a same-sex union.

* Power Line reports on Pelosi having the rules changed to allow Congress to table the Colombian Free Trade Agreement. So many snarky comments I could make, but perhaps this playing of politics merely speaks for itself.

* Boy, does Michelle Obama sound familiar or what?

* Finally, a good move in a follow up from yesterday: The woman dismissed from Obama’s delegate camp for referring to children in trees as “monkeys” has been reinstated.

Catching up while wondering who the mystery first pitch is for Red Sox opening day, and whether Obama’s promise to listen to the generals on the ground in Iraq applies to Gen. Petraeus this week.

* Bush fast-tracked the Colombian Free Trade Agreement yesterday. I said it before - for all the negatives of the Bush Presidency, his record on trade, on a whole, is not one of them. It’s especially refreshing when hearing the alternatives from the Democratic side.

* The rumor is that Condoleeza Rice is angling for the vice-presidential nomination on the McCain ticket. Unsolicited advice for McCain - we don’t know a thing about her, so don’t do it.

* Not everything is rainbows and unicorns financially on the left.

* Chances are that, if you have any interest in video games, you’ve already played You Have to Burn the Rope. If not, go and play it - you’re in for a treat.

* Don Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek on pessimistic bias regarding the economy. I’m generally more optimistic about these things myself, as he is.

* A question - it seems that every single time a politician or Presidential candidate attempts to use a person as an example for their own health care complaints, they’re lying about it. Why is that? We know that some people have it bad, why do they struggle so much to find them?

* Corn is now at $6/bushel. Thanks, ethanol! At least my gas prices are lower! Wait, what?

* In a “naw, really” moment, it appears that the health care requirement in Massachusetts has resulted in a - you guessed it - shortage in available doctors. Remember, this is the same kind of plan favored by Hillary Clinton.

* Obama’s positive ratings are due more to “how he makes voters feel than by specific characteristics they attributed to him.” But, again, I’m a jerk for pointing this out.

* Finally, more nationalization schemes from Hugo Chavez. I worry a lot for Venuzuela, and more because it’s another thing in a long list that the United Nations was designed for and that they’re essentially punting on. No, it’s not Darfur, it’s not Zimbabwe, it’s not Tibet, it’s not Taiwan. But it’s bad, and that no one is willing to step in through the allegedly essential international community is patently ridiculous.

You know you read too many blogs when you’re without internet access from Friday afternoon -> Sunday afternoon, and you have 580 unread posts in your Google Reader. Let’s see if we can’t knock some of them off.

* Did I post this last week? Maybe I did, but it’s worth posting again: this is awesome. A cell phone that doesn’t work via voice.

* Do ankles really exist? Doctors in Texas can’t agree. Ah, licensing squabbles…

* If Jonah Goldberg wrote as intelligently as he did in Liberal Fascism, I’d read him more often. His piece this week on the stark realities of the New Deal is one of those good pieces that will likely get overlooked. There’s no rational reason why it took me until an upper-level college history class to learn that there was even a rational alternative view on the New Deal, let alone the economic facts behind it. If we taught that sort of information in high school, it would do wonders.

* Deval Patrick made a pretty big deal about the casino legislation - one of the few things he’s been up to that I’ve thought was a good idea up to this point. Too bad he was working on his book deal in New York when the bill was being voted on. Way to push those votes, Deval. Good job.

* I learned something new today: Most United States citizens get their water from public works/governments, most United Kingdom citizens get it from private companies. Pretty backwards if you think about it - I never knew it was that widespread here, or that private there.

* Forget those White Sox frauds, read up on how the Red Sox are built for the long haul. Happy opening week!

* I love the “Al Gore riding in on a white stallion and rescuing the Democratic Party during the convention” fantasies. The reality is that he’s not going to run, and the perception is that Gore is even further left than Obama’s is.

* More about where the two Democratic candidates stand v. McCain. It’s still early when we don’t know who the Democrat is, but this is where Obama’s hurting the most following the Wright debacle - he may be able to recover the hard left (if he ever lost them to begin with), but the center is where his bread and butter was supposed to be in terms of viability, and that’s no longer a given. Regardless, a LOT can change in 6 months.

* I don’t watch Fox News. I don’t have any standard feeling as to what they stand for, whether they’re actually conservative or just further right than their cable competition. I did see Outfoxed and found it to be ridiculous. With that said, MoveOn demonstrating against Fox News? Really? Apparently, they think the mainstream media is getting its talking points from Fox, and that’s apparently bad. Isn’t the left also in favor of reinstating the fairness doctrine? How do these two things compute? I’m glad MoveOn’s relevance is continuing to disappear.

* Coming soon: WiiGuyver, where you use your Wiimote to diffuse bombs. This is actually for real - the US military is using rigged Wiimotes to help diffuse land mines. How funny is that?

* This past weekend was “Earth Hour,” where some people, groups, businesses, and even governments turned the lights out for an hour for yet another statement about climate change that only echoed amongst those who care. Google took part, turning their homepage black. The irony? It uses more energy for a monitor to display black than it does to display white. Yeah yeah, “awareness” and all that jazz, but come on.

* Barack Obama says his foriegn policy is a “return to the traditional bipartisan realistic policy of George Bush’s father, of John F. Kennedy, of, in some ways, Ronald Reagan…” So let me get this straight - Bush 41 made it so we had to spend 12 extra years bombing Iraq while we bent over backwards for the UN, Reagan spent a great deal of time funding contras and other undesirables in an attempt to disrupt various events, and JFK botched the Bay of Pigs so badly that it lead to a missile crisis that left the USSR in better condition defensively than it was when it started two weeks earlier. This is the type of foriegn policy he’s considering “realistic” and wants to return to, while deriding the alleged “naive ways that have caused us so much damage in our reputation around the world?” Barack Obama has said some ridiculous things on the campaign trail so far, but this takes the cake.

That’s enough for today. More tomorrow.

Cuh-razy busy. I’m glad I spent an hour writing last night.

* Finally. The fact that it took the Justice Department 13 months to approve the XM/Sirius merger is completely ridiculous on all counts. It now requires FCC approval, hardly a given, but my goodness it should have NEVER taken this long to do.

* The best marriages are those where women marry men who are less attractive than themselves, research has found. Another reason to be glad I married up.

* Again, your campaign music video sucks. Stop making them.

* A Washington Post piece on how both candidates have been artificially inflating their roles. I’m glad the Post and paint this the way they do instead of, you know, calling them out on their crap. Alas, there’s a Republican to beat, so…

* Speaking of embellishment, it’s not hard to forget that Hillary Clinton is a master. This is why having the internet is so great - people generally don’t get away with stuff anymore. Permutations of this video, which show Hillary Clinton completely making up a story about her trip to Bosnia as First Lady, forced her to somewhat retract the story, but in her typical Clinton way. But hey, those of us on the right have known this to be a Clinton MO for a decade plus now - we’re glad to have the left on board, plenty of room on the bandwagon.

* It’s too bad we could never see this on American television. A debate between a black magic shaman and an Indian rationalist turned ugly when the rationalist challenged the shaman to kill him live on television using black magic. Two hours later, the shaman failed, the television station stayed with it the whole time, and the rationalist lives to tell the story. Very bizarre.

* After finally having an empty enough stomach to read more about the Richardson endorsement, it makes me wonder why I even entertained the idea of supporting him:

“I am very loyal to the Clintons. I served under President Clinton. But I served well. And I served the country well. And he gave me that opportunity,” Richardson told “Fox News Sunday.”

“But you know … it shouldn’t just be Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton,” he said.

You tell ‘em, Bill.

* Real-life Rickrolling. I love it.

* Why shouldn’t I be worried about that California ruling on homeschools again?

* The Washington Post also offered an op-ed on a perspective on Jeremiah Wright from a black minister. Sure, he doesn’t speak for everyone, but the broader point is that neither does Wright. Also, a rightfully vicious piece by Christopher Hitchens on the Wright speech. The money shot?:

You often hear it said, of some political or other opportunist, that he would sell his own grandmother if it would suit his interests. But you seldom, if ever, see this notorious transaction actually being performed, which is why I am slightly surprised that Obama got away with it so easily. (Yet why do I say I am surprised? He still gets away with absolutely everything.)”

Hitchens points out that Obama’s grandmother is alive, although not entirely well, at 85 years old. I’m wondering how she feels under that bus…

* National Review’s Campaign Spot breaks down the raw vote totals in the Democratic race.

* Finally, a pessimistic look at New Hampshire prospects coming this fall. I’ll try not to light myself on fire.

Happy opening day!

* We’ve started watching The Return of Jezebel James, because my famous girlfriend Parker Posey is in it and we’re not quite over our Gilmore Girls fix. It’s amazing how jarring a laugh track is after not experiencing it in a comedy for a while, and, while Posey’s trying a wee bit too hard to channel Lauren Graham, it’s…well…not horrible. I won’t say it’s great, or even all that good, but it’s a quick 30 minute shot in the arm as something mindless to keep on the DVR when we don’t want to watch an hour of something.

* Another show we’ve been going through is Quarterlife, which spent an evening on NBC before getting cancelled days later. Bravo aired the remaining pieces, which we’re watching - it’s essentially what I expected from Tell Me You Love Me, except that I feel like it’s it’s a better show. It’s a shame NBC didn’t give this one a better shot.

* Also on the DVR as we wait impatently for the shows we like to return (and baseball, and Battlestar) is Tim and Eric Awesome Show, which succeeds in ways that Wonder Showzen didn’t, in my mind. It’s completely bizarre and makes no sense, but, well, I kind of like it that way.

* Michael Cera = awesome. Michael Cera + Edgar Wright = more awesome. Michael Cera + Edgar Wright + a story about a guy who has defeat his girl crush’s seven ex-boyfriends video game-style? = the most awesome. Please let this happen.

* Also, Jason Segal doing a Muppet movie? Really? This is also exciting. Please let this happen.

* DMX, the rapper, apparently didn’t know that Barack Obama was running for President. Or that any black man was. Or that anyone actually has the name “Barack.” Or, we can deduce, that there was even an election happening.

* A crazy episode in Red Sox Nation today as they nearly boycotted their final spring training game and the trip to Japan over a dispute with Major League Baseball over their coaches getting paid a stipend for the trip. I’m with the Sox players on this one, way to stand up for a coaching staff that too often gets shafted by baseball and fans alike.

Non-political in nature.

1) Rock on, Red Sox. I’m a big Francona fan at this point - hell, he’s only 8-0 in the World Series - and I think he’s the best guy to run what is essentially a very difficult team in a very difficult market. This is where Rick chimes in with Francona’s record in Philly or the 2006 All-Injury All-Stars or something, but I don’t care much. 3 trips to the playoffs with 2 World Series trophies is enough for me to want to see him handed a blank check.

2) ABC plans to air the Wizard’s First Rule television series starting this fall. Talk about weird - the rumors of a television something based around Goodkind’s novels have been floating since at least 2005, and Sam Raimi got involved, and this is apparently a go - 22 episodes based on the first book in the series. I’m a little stunned by it, frankly, and I can’t imagine how they plan on translating what’s essentially 100 pages of S&M into a syndicated program (believe it or not, it’s somewhat important to the plot), but hey. I just hope with Raimi involved, it won’t be too cheesy, but fantasy on film can go so wrong so quickly…

3) So I ended up popping for Team Fortress 2 on PC so I could play with extra maps and not be monopolizing the television 24/7 when I need my fix. I have to say, while being able to use the 360 controller with it works wonders, I still suck. I’m usually pretty good on the 360 matches, but I’m just consistently destroyed by people on the PC. It’s crazy. I do need to get my headset to work better, though. The drivers didn’t make the mic pick up sound any easier, but I’ll figure it out.

More later on.

* I have lots of reasons to like Mike Lowell, but this doesn’t hurt, either. A class act through and through, he’s the type of guy you want to root for. I’m so excited for this season.

* My conspiracy theory as to why Obama’s largely masking his platform with inspirational quotes that belong on pictures of kittens? the fact that he’s probably the most liberal candidate to come this close to the Presidency in my lifetime. That doesn’t jive with the center.

* I’m glad that the New York Times was able to take some time out of their busy schedule to go after Obama’s economic hypocrisy. Oh, wait, they didn’t - they were too busy implying McCain’s having an affair with a staffer/lobbyist. Bang-up job there, Grey Lady. Great sourcing, too, really.

* Two movie notes:

a) Not a huge fan of Where the Wild Things Are. I skipped the picture book phase of my learning to read portion of the program, and so I never got to read it when it might have made any sort of lasting impression. With that said, I wasn’t at all interested in the Spike Jonze film interpretation until I read how poorly it’s testing. It seems like he’s either missing the boat and making an adult film, or (my broader suspicion) Warner Bros. forgot that the book isn’t 100% for kids anyway, and there’s no way not to make a book that ends with the monsters yelling “Oh please don’t go–we’ll eat you up–we love you so!” This could end up being absolutely phenominal.

b) A World War Z movie? While I always harbored a desire to film this myself someday, I’m pretty excited by the prospect.

* Via Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, someone’s gonna be getting fired over this one.

* If I only had about $5m in expendable cash….

* Required reading alert: The Impossible Dream of Energy Independence at Reason.

* An interesting story making the rounds is that Lawrence Lessig, lawyer and copyleft pioneer, is considering a run for Congress. I’m not really a big proponent of copyleft/Free Software Foundation positions, and I think that having a person with those points of view in power could seriously undermine our ability to keep innovative technologies and ideas in the United States. With that said, it would be a very interesting campaign, as Lessig could quite possibly become the first true internet candidate in the sense that he’s well-known around tech circles and the types of philosophies he pushes garner quite a bit of enthusiasm. Then again, he could be the next Ron Paul.

* Gov. Lynch makes his case against re-election in November. God, if I didn’t know of Deval Patrick, I’d say that New Hampshire has one of the dumber governors in the nation.

* What does it say about me that I’m seriously considering this for myself?

* This is an interesting wrinkle: If the Supreme Court somehow rules against individual gun rights this spring, it’ll break a compact with Montana. That’s crazy stuff.

* I agree with this.

* Mark Cuban is awesome.

‘Tis all for now.