Double Play: Baseball Classic & Pop Psychology

I do not usually take kindly to blog sites that fill their pages with a virtually unlimited quantity of really large photos. Those sites take seemingly forever to load, so I almost always bypass them. However, I am departing from my usual practice of no photos for this one singular exception.

I stumbled on this marvelous rare photo of a young Henry Aaron at bat in an empty stadium. It is exceptional not only because of the subject (my favorite athlete of all time, along with Sandy Koufax) but because it is an electronic color image rare for that era (the late 1950s or early 1960s) and because the original image is large enough (4117 x 4077 pixels) to crop for an exact fit to any possible computer screen dimension. I have collected over 1,200 baseball wallpaper images and over 19,000 wallpaper images overall, but this became my instant favorite. That is why I chose to post it — that, and because I was looking for an excuse to see how both Wordpress and Blogger handle imported images.

By the way, those of you who know our family history might think that I became a fan of both the Milwaukee Braves/Milwaukee Brewers and the Green Bay Packers because we lived in Madison, Wisconsin for over three years when I was a youngster. Well, you would be wrong.

The real reason is much simpler. Soon after we moved to our first apartment in Wilmington, Delaware, I walked into the living room one day to discover my father watching a baseball game on television. Now, my father almost never watched baseball on TV, so I asked him who was playing. It so happened that he was watching either the 1957 or 1958 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Milwaukee Braves. I then asked for whom he was rooting, and he — a native New Yorker born in the Bronx — naturally answered, The Yankees. Contrarian that I was, even at that young age (and, of course, still am today), I became an instant fan of the Milwaukee Braves. I shudder to think what would have happened had the Yankees been playing, say, the Chicago Cubs!

Fittingly enough, the same thing happened three or four years later. I again walked through the living room one day when lo and behold: I encountered my father watching a football game on TV. I was even more surprised this time because my father watched football even less often than he watched baseball. On this occasion, he was watching the 1961 NFL championship game between the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers. I again asked for whom he was rooting, and he naturally replied, The Giants. Voilà! I instantly became a Green Bay Packers fan. Once again, the possibility that under different circumstances I might have become a Chicago Bears fan makes be nauseous even to contemplate.

So, for all of you amateur psychologists out there, have fun with this one...

Making the Grade

Fourth-grader Heather brought home her report card for the third marking period on Friday. Her grades for the year to date are as follows:

Subject	P1	P2	P3
Reading/Literature	B	A	A
Writing	A	A	A
Word Study	A	A	A
Mathematics	B	B	A
Science	B	B	A
Social Studies	B	A	B
Art	E	E	E
Music	E	E	E
Phys Ed	E	E	E
Work/Study Skills	E	E	E
Reading/Literature	E	E	E

As frustrating as it was to see her miss straight A's just because of social studies, as a former mathematician I was pleased to see her finally get her first "A" in math (and science, too). I tease Heather and Wesley both by insisting that math is the only subject that really "counts." Their standard retort is that science is the only subject that really "matters."

Oxymoronic

The term postal service has become an oxymoron along the lines of military intelligence, congressional ethics, rap music, and Microsoft Works.

Recently, the U.S. Postal Service announced that it would cut Saturday delivery beginning in the first half of next year (2011). I say, Why stop there? I accept that businesses might require more frequent delivery than residential customers, but I would not mind if home delivery were reduced to three days per week (Monday-Wednesday-Friday or Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday) or even two days per week (Monday-Thursday or Tuesday-Friday).

In fact, I am trying to eliminate the post office from my life altogether. A few years ago, my magazine subscriptions were arriving ridiculously late every week. I confirmed that the magazine publishers were sending their periodicals out in a timely manner: I would stop by our local library to verify that they had the current issue, but days—and sometimes a full week or more—would pass before I would receive my copy. It turns out that our local mail carrier was sorting mail by house number only, completely ignoring the street, neighborhood, and family names. As a result, our mail was frequently misdelivered to another house with the same street number but with totally different street and family names in a completely different neighborhood. And of course, several times a week we would receive mail that was intended for that family.

When I originally reported my problems to our local post office, the supervisor told me that the postal service would take action only if I failed to receive my subscriptions for four consecutive weeks! Late delivery was not worth investigating, nor apparently was non-receipt for one, two, or three weeks.

In response to that inept delivery service and unresponsive management, I eventually allowed all of my periodical subscriptions to expire. In addition, I now pay almost all of my bills electronically via the internet so that I no longer have to rely on home postal delivery. I still occasionally have to mail bill payments to some of the smaller companies we deal with who do not have an internet presence (e.g., family physician, dentist, and trash collector), but I am able to pay the vast majority of regular, recurring bills on-line (water, gas, electricity, local telephone, long distance telephone, and credit cards).

Furthermore, to save additional money, I encourage the postal service to close as many facilities as they want. I cannot even remember the last time I visited a post office. I now buy a book of stamps about once every 18 months or so, and even then I buy it at Wal-Mart along with my groceries, not at a post office. And, of course, to mail packages, there is always Federal Express or UPS.

And all of that still does not go far enough. I heartily favor do-not-mail legislation that would prohibit delivery of unwanted second class (read "junk") mail to everyone who registers just like the current do-not-call law prohibits unsolicited marketing telephone calls. Yes, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) offers a similar service, but that applies only to DMA members who voluntarily comply, does not carry the force of law, and is therefore just not good enough. Amazingly, only about 12 states have even attempted to pass such legislation, and none have succeeded.

On its web site, the DMA pleads, We need your...commitment to this fight to keep the mail channel open. Gag me with the proverbial spoon!

[Postscript: In fairness to the post office, I should note that our old mail carrier has died, and our new carrier sorts mail by family name, not street number. Our family name is uncommon enough that I am confident that we are the only family with that surname on our mail carrier's entire route. Indeed, the occurrence of misdelivered letters to our house has virtually stopped altogether. On the other hand, we have families named Edwards and Williams living further down the street who might not be so enamored with the new system.]

Richard Dawkins Revisited

In response to my earlier posting about Richard Dawkins, I received a comment from one reader that I initially relegated to the trash bin. Upon further reflection, however, I decided that it merits a response.

The reader Jonolan wrote: Dawkins is one of the Godless; why would any true human allow it [sic] a public forum?

Well, how's that for a tolerant, enlightened attitude? Atheists (and presumably agnostics, too) should be denied a forum, and anyone who provides them with one cannot be a true human. The reader does not state his own religious preference, but no matter: I remain wary of anyone who wears their religion on their sleeve.

In any case, spare me your sanctimonious righteousness, dear reader. Ardent religionists have perpetrated as much evil as any other class of miscreant. From the Crusades to the Inquisition to the Protestant-Catholic strife in Northern Ireland to Al-Qaeda, religious extremism has wreaked havoc throughout history. We in the United States are certainly not exempt: the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and misguided individuals like Timothy McVeigh all claimed to be doing God's work. What hogwash. I would much prefer to deal with the likes of Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris any day.

I never cease to be amazed at the arrogance of religious zealots who maintain that their particular religion has a monopoly on truth and—by extension—virtue, and that all non-believers should therefore be silenced or—better yet—eliminated altogether.

On second thought, maybe I do share that last sentiment after all: perhaps intolerant extremists of all types should be (in no particular order) keelhauled, drawn-and-quartered, hanged, and shot. As Jon Lovitz so famously said on Saturday Night Live, Yeah! That's the ticket!

Richard Dawkins on Pope Benedict XVI

The following interview with Richard Dawkins took place on 28 March 2010:

Should Pope Benedict XVI be held responsible for the escalating scandals over clerical sexual abuse in Europe?

Yes he should, and it's going to escalate a lot further, as more and more victims break through the guilt of their childhood indoctrination and come forward.

Should he be investigated for how cases of abuse were handled under his watch as archbishop of Munich or as the Vatican's chief doctrinal enforcer?

Yes, of course he should. This former head of the Inquisition should be arrested the moment he dares to set foot outside his tinpot fiefdom of the Vatican, and he should be tried in an appropriate civil - not ecclesiastical - court. That's what should happen. Sadly, we all know our faith-befuddled governments will be too craven to do it.

Should the pope resign?

No. As the College of Cardinals must have recognized when they elected him, he is perfectly - ideally - qualified to lead the Roman Catholic Church. A leering old villain in a frock, who spent decades conspiring behind closed doors for the position he now holds; a man who believes he is infallible and acts the part; a man whose preaching of scientific falsehood is responsible for the deaths of countless AIDS victims in Africa; a man whose first instinct when his priests are caught with their pants down is to cover up the scandal and damn the young victims to silence: in short, exactly the right man for the job. He should not resign, moreover, because he is perfectly positioned to accelerate the downfall of the evil, corrupt organization whose character he fits like a glove, and of which he is the absolute and historically appropriate monarch.

No, Pope Ratzinger should not resign. He should remain in charge of the whole rotten edifice - the whole profiteering, woman-fearing, guilt-gorging, truth-hating, child-raping institution - while it tumbles, amid a stench of incense and a rain of tourist-kitsch sacred hearts and preposterously crowned virgins, about his ears.

Yikes! Isn't it frustrating when someone is just too shy to say what he really thinks?

Truer words were never spoken

I could give a flying crap about the political process... We're an entertainment company. —Glenn Beck, Forbes Magazine dated April 26, 2010

Perhaps the only true words Glenn Beck has ever spoken.

Driving me crazy

I'm not sure which of the following types of drivers annoy me the most:

1. Drivers intending to make a right turn onto a two-lane highway who tie up traffic behind them because they insist on waiting until both lanes are totally clear before proceeding. Whatever happened to seizing the right lane and then—if they really need to get into the left lane—merge left as traffic permits?

—or—

2. Drivers who park in the left lane of a two-lane highway by going 10 miles per hour less than the speed limit, even on a clear day with dry roads. If they were about to make a left turn any time soon, that would be understandable. But how many times do you see such people proceed for mile after mile totally oblivious to the fact that everyone behind them is compelled to pass to the right?

On second thought, I'll bet both groups are very often the same drivers. I favor issuing them restricted licenses that permit them to drive only on February 30.

Math nuggets

Mathematics is the only subject that really counts, and random numbers are too important to be left to chance. After all, math is just a sine of the times.

There are three kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't.

Be advised that you should not use the number 288 in polite company because it's two gross.

I'll do algebra, I'll do trig, and I'll even do statistics, but graphing is where I draw the line.

It might be acute to say so, but the trig to getting a good tan is to remember it's all a matter of degrees, and a man who stays in the sun long enough becomes a tangent.

On the other hand, Microsoft Windows is just another pane in the glass.

Alas, mathematical puns are the first sine of madness.

Well, where did it go?

4/04 - Date not found.

(Come on: it's a computer joke! Where is your sense of humor??)

Oh, you poor fellows...

In February, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, while debating a proposed tax increase for people making over $250,000 per year, said that "after taxes, a million dollars is not a lot of money." Steele made the comment in Little Rock during a debate against Democrat Harold Ford Jr., then a potential New York Senate candidate. (Steele is not the only out-of-touch-with-reality Republican: radio host Rush Limbaugh—who reportedly makes about $50 million a year—also recently argued that "$250,000 is not wealthy.")

Forget the lavish Republican "strategy session" in Hawaii in January. (As John McCain himself once asked, whatever happened to the Republicans as the party of fiscal responsibility?) Forget the Republican financing of a party at a lesbian bondage night club in California. (Can you say "family values?") Mr. Steele's statement breaks new ground as the epitome of arrogant insensitivity, coming as it does when unemployment nation-wide is hovering near 10%. For workers earning the median salary in this country, it would take 20 years to earn a million dollars before taxes, assuming they could even hold a job for that duration. Shed no crocodile tears for Mr. Steele or Mr. Limbaugh.

The only other organization that is so out of touch with ordinary citizens is the Catholic church. (On second thought, maybe the church is a little too much in touch!) "Holy Father, the people of God are with you and will not let themselves be influenced by the petty gossip of the moment..." Cardinal Angelo Sodano said recently while "defending" the pope. With friends like that, who needs enemies? How can Cardinal Sodano have the audacity to dismiss reports of hundreds if not thousands of documented cases of child abuse by Catholic priests as mere "petty gossip"???

Both the Republican hierarchy and the church hierarchy just don't get it. A pox on both their houses...

Not viable—at least not for CCPS!

Denmark's finance ministry, New Zealand's Ministry of Health, the state of Nebraska, the FBI, NASA, and the NSA, among others, all use variants of the open source Linux operating system. The French military, Ministry of Culture, and Tax Authority all run the free and open source Thunderbird e-mail software on over 200,000 computers. And even Chesterfield County's own Public Library System has offered the free and open source Firefox web browser as an alternative to Internet Explorer for many years now.

When I asked the Chesterfield County Public Schools (CCPS) Director of Technology if any serious consideration has ever been given to using open source software at CCPS, she replied:

Over ten years ago, Chesterfield County Public Schools standardized our network and systems on Windows. Our servers are Windows; our software is Windows compatible and all applications either externally purchased or internally created are Windows compatible. To move to an unsupported open source solution would not be a viable solution for an organization of this size.

Open source software: demonstrably practical for all of the larger organizations listed above, but not viable for the delicate sensibilities of CCPS???

Bon Voyage!

On his radio show last month, Rush Limbaugh threatened to leave the country if the Health Care Reform Act (HCRA) was passed by Congress. “I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica,” he said.

Well, the Health Care Reform Act did eventually pass, so we can only hope that Rush will let us all know when and where his departure flight is scheduled. Millions of us will be delighted to see him off!