This excerpt from my sainted mother’s (may the Good Lord Jesus bless her and keep her) latest electronic transmission:

REGARDING OTHER EQUIPMENT, I’M STILL GETTING ORGANIZED…GIVE ME A FEW MORE DAYS TO GET EVERYTHING, OR A PART OF IT, UNDER CONTROL. RIGHT NOW I CAN’T GET RID OF ALL CAPS, BUT I’M SURE THAT WILL NOT BE THE CASE WITH THE OTHER! THANKS FOR YOUR HELP, I’LL LET YOU KNOW. CK GETS INTO [blah blah] NEXT WED. & THURS., AND HOPEFULLY ALL WILL BEGIN TO SETTLE DOWN. SEE YOU SHUG; LOVE, MAMA

It’s good to be reminded that the entire world is not wired out the wazoo. Frankly, I find it amazing that mi madre can even battle through email. We all know that the devil invented the innernut, and I’m sure she’s horrified that her first boy has made a living off of it for some number of years now.

CK, referenced above, is my youngest brother, and I’m pretty sure that he has a healthy disrespect for this interwebnet thingy. I’m not even sure if he’s gonna allow a computer in his household. No doubt there will be long conversations about the necessity of le internet for his kids.

Gracious, it’s head-spinning how weirdly different the various members of the family are, especially considering we all grew up under the same directives*. I guess it’s what makes a family. I just picture my departed padre looking down and shaking his head…until his bobber goes under, and he has to reel in a 5-pound bass.

* Except that, as the oldest, I didn’t get away with all the whining and carping that my brothers did. Of course they whined…I set a standard that is yet unmet.

I think Jack Sparks is missing an important point here, in what appears to be a desire to please his MSP/STP audience:

Make no mistake, if you make the heavy decision to go to war, then the object of the game is to kill your enemy before he kills you. However, the thing that ALWAYS gets lost in this situation that we’re in is that these people are coming after us BECAUSE we have a secular justice system, and a constitution, that allows every man, woman and child regardless of race, color, creed, or religion, equal access to a pursuit of happiness. There ARE a lot of crooks out there who get off “scott-free” because of the social bargain we’ve made with our Criminal laws. Regardless of how you feel about terrorists and the Middle East, it is the absolute depth of stupidity to think that we should return to some six-gun, judge, jury AND executioner system of doing things. Our justice system MUST remain blind until sentencing; thousands of years of history are filled with the ABSOLUTE FAILURE of “hang ‘em high,” “put ‘em in the ground to meet their maker” legal processes. For this reason, this is without a doubt, one of the most fundamentally misinformed songs I’ve ever had the displeasure of hearing, typical of someone with so much money, that he has a hard time believing there are folks who really rely on the system as it stands.
Finally, let me make it abundantly clear that I am not doing the most Un-American thing of all, and calling Keith, Un-American. It’s my right to say his song is a short-sighted, jingoistic piece of shit, just as it’s his right to sing it.

I’m no fan of Toby Keith. You couldn’t find a CD of his in my house, or an MP3 on my peecee.

That said, I don’t really give a flying eff why they’re coming after me. They might dislike me for my haircut or my love of Hawaiian shirts. The fact that they are coming after me (and my daughter, and my wife, and son-in-law, and my stepkids) is more than enough for me. I’m not asking for a Hang ‘Em High license, but I am asking for an understanding of why Americans might just feel the way they do. I see no problem in returning to the Hang ‘Em High society, when they’re not willing to give your and yours, and me and mine the same due process that you insist upon, and that’s what they’re doing and have done.

This seems to be a recurrent exercise amongst the artists of the world. This why? question. I don’t really care why? from their point of view. But I’m willing to listen…just don’t try to bomb me while I’m standing there with an open mind. Calling Toby Keith a jingoistic piece of shit is easy when you’re here and safe. It’s probably even true, but, as they say, so fucking what?

…is that they’re not that much different than you or me.

One of the 20 or so main principles uncovered by the Bill James revolution in baseball is that cheaper and often better talent is widely available and largely unrecognized, because of the inefficiencies of a tradition-choked talent recognition system.

Let’s be serious…in my entire frame, I’ve got the talent of a Matt Welch fingernail. Still, it’s something for the rest of you to strive for.

Once more, we find that Baseball is Life. Too bad for all those dorks that are too put off by the slowness of the Great Game.

Inside Baseball

I’m not saying that this is the way my mama thinks, or doesn’t think, or anything like that. But does the average Mama in the street give a flying eff about the endless pages of parsing that a man like Kevin Drum does? I’m just wondering, seriously and honestly. I can’t see it, and I daresay that I’m about 10 times closer to the Common Man (in Texas, anyway) than KD or OW or Daily Kos or MyDD or young Jesse are on an everyday basis.

Naturally, it will be easy to say that we’re all a bunch of right-wing nuts, since we’re in Texas. Well, OK. It’s what I care about, certainly more than California or Massachusetts, or the rest of the Lib pantheon.

CLARIFICATION UPDATE: It occurs to me that possibly not all of my readers are aware that DIPS is the latest and greatest Sabremetric, beloved by baseball nerds across the nation. I’m emphatically not calling the bloggers I listed ‘dips.’ I am calling them politcal stat-head nerds. Now, get out there and read some Bill James.

Greatest Line Of The Week (so far)

The left needs to demonstrate that it’s fundamentally different from the wing nuts of the right — ethically as well as ideologically. They have lies and loopy conspiracy theories on their side; we have the truth. This is a chance to show the contrast. So let’s stick to what we know, and can reasonably claim based on the public record.

Yes, that’s it…I think he’s nailed it. We’re all loopy liars with our hands in the tills, and deep in America’s pocketbooks. And to top it all off, you’re a wing nut! I’m not commenting on anything else in this post, just that last, lovely line. This is precisely the way the Democratic Party thinks of you. Especially the eggheads in control of the party. Never mind what you see, hear, feel, and smell every day of your life. These guys will set you straight, and get you on the Good Foot in no time flat, you simpleton!

LAKER STAR KOBE BRYANT CHARGED WITH FELONY SEXUAL ASSAULT DISTRICT ATTY: Could face four years to life sentence in prison if convicted…

Everybody that believes Kobe Bryant is gonna see Day One in a jail cell, raise your hand. I’m offering 50-1 odds that this spot of trouble is disposed of by NBA Opening Day (and we’ll match it up on PayPal.) He’s a rich athlete. Rich athletes, like rich celebrities, do not go to jail.

From Drudge…