On...Tribe on the Run

Wait Until Next Year

The white flag wasn't so big this year, but the results will probably be the same. The Indians traded Mark Derosa to the St. Louis Cardinals. Last year they traded CC Sabathia, Casey Blake, and Paul Byrd. They have surrendered and signed a worthless peace treaty.

The Cleveland Indians are a sad, sad disappointment again this year. So much for my prediction that the Tribe would have a great year. The bullpen is a shambles, injuries have ravaged the core of the team, the ballpark is empty, and the did I mention the bullpen? The Tribe has scored the 3rd most runs in all of baseball so far this year. Which is really good considering Hafner and Sizemore have spent time on the DL. However they have given up the most runs in all of baseball. Not so good. Actually good enough for the worst record in the AL. And the terrible and strange thing is when they do hit they don't hit for Cliff Lee (their only good pitcher.) Lee's run-support from his teammates is third worst in all of baseball. Statiscally he is only pitching a tad worse than his Cy Young performance last year (current ERA is 2.88), but so far this year his record is a pedestrian 4-6. (Last year 22-3) ARTICLE on Run-Support

Jerry Crasnik from ESPN has a detailed, full of great info INDIANS piece that goes in depth into the woes of the Wahoos.

I still think Eric Wedge should get one more shot next year. The Indians also need to spend a little more than they have. (They are currently 14th out of 30. I know that is no guarantee but something needs to be done.

PS: Guess I should start Blogging about my hometown Tigers

On...Why Are Politicians so Weird?

Why would you want that job?

Mark Steyn brings up a very interesting aside in his latest op/ed piece. HERE. The gist of it comes from a question someone asked him recently, "Why are politicians so weird?" This referred to the numerous sex scandals within both parties--most recently Gov. Mark Sanford (or anyone who 'hangs' with Joe Biden or Barney Frank I assume--WEIRD).

And if you know local politicians they are normally just as loony. Modern politics breeds a certain species of human.

His theory is you have to be odd or serious warped to do all the things you have to do to get elected and stay elected. If you think about it I can certainly understand. Sure elected office has some appeal to me, but only some. It is most the world of fantasy. What a pain in the ass public office has to be? The hours, the fund-raising, the media, the scrutiny, the PUBLIC. Maybe Steyn is right and we will get more and more wack-jobs. The second part of his theory is this is all akin to the rise of big government. We'll see. I hope not. But think about all the monarchs and their ilk and all the power they possessed AND the weirdness that ensued.

Limited government. Boring government. Non-coercive government. That's the ticket.

In a similar vein, Victor Davis Hanson remarks on our Victorian nature HERE.

I'll leave you with another classic quote from HL Mencken.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken

It's like he's speaking to ooooohhhh GLOBAL WARMING!

PS: And why are so many politicians ugly? Have you seen Henry Waxman? Get this guy a paperbag.

FILM REVIEW: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

[Director: Michael Bay. Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, John Turturro, Kevin Dunn, Bunch of CGI Robots]

Michael Bay continues to produce big summer films with Kodak moment shots, slow-motion-world-burning-behind-you mayhem, and vivid generalizations about modern society. AND he scores huge box office (SEE Box Office Mojo). Transformers 2 is basically a nice upgrade of the first movie, sans the lovely shots of the decaying Detroit Railroad Station. Bay did improve the battle-sequences in the fact you can actually tell one robot from another much better. Still this film is too long for a popcorn movie, over 2 and a half hours! The plot is convulted and lengthy. I feel you could have cut a good twenty minutes of it and got the same effect.

Every standard Michael Bay shot is here including his patented shot looking up from the ground into the sky as a slow-motion helicopter blades whirl by ala Bad Boys II. He clearly loves filming Megan Fox with her flowing auburn hair, stunning blue eyes, and Bally's body. Fox is an empty vessel, like a dorm-room poster She and new-hottie Isabel Lucas just walk around in tight shorts and flimsy dresses all movie. Not that I'm complaining.

But the main focus I have is what I called 'vivid generalization.' I know its Hollywood and this is a summer flick. I get it, but still Bay films have this synthetic layer, coating if you will, that permeates the movie. I think this is best shown in the twenty minutes the movie depicts "college" life. It is absurd. The dorms are immaculate and huge and clearly been raided by graphic artists, there are no ugly people, girls strut around in big, fluffy towels, and no one is there for education. AND Rainn Wilson (Dwight from the Office) is a professor, funny yes, but still fits my point. Megan Fox herself is a generalization of bitchy-beauty. The whole thing is ridiculous and so much more superficial than the real thing. Does Bay even live on this planet?

And lastly there is the blatant racism or pseudo-racism in the film. I'm pretty anti-PC and don't like to flame such nasty name-calling, but I was cringing in this film every time the twin Autobots, Skids and Mudflap, appeared on screen. They are a 21st century minstrel show. What the Hell were they thinking? And by they I mean the hundreds of people who must have been involved in this aspect of the movie--from the concept to the finished product. It does make Jar-Jar Binks look like a pure enlightened mascot. It is really horrible and now millions of kids have seen this idiocy. It is so unnecessary and so easy to avoid. Just leave them out!

I've added some links to show the continuing conversation on this:

Ain't It Cool News.com (Warning: Adult Language)
Yahoo.com
SLASHFILM.COM: No One Wants to Own Up to Racism in Transformers

Further 2 cents. This film in my opinion is a hard PG-13, there are lots of sexual innuendo throughout. I wouldn't take kids under 13.

RATING: 5.5 out of 10
Though I'd rate the actions sequences as 7.5.

From...Peggy Noonan and a Sentence for Obama

I think this article was pretty on point regarding our young president and the jumble of things he is trying to do all at the same time. Peggy Noonan argues that presidents ultimately come down to one sentence, not a paragraph. She fears Obama and his staff haven't figured this out yet.

ARTICLE FROM WALL STREET JOURNAL

On...Tim Burton

Down the Rabbit Hole

Tim Burton is adding his name to the long list of Alice in Wonderland adaptations (and yes, Johnny Depp does have a role, the Mad Hatter in fact, as seen above). Here's a little sneak peak from USA Today with one very fun image.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

On...The Chicago Way

Less than Six Months

That's all it took for our POTUS to start being the realist hypocrite. He is having a tougher and tougher time keeping the mask on. Sure he will fool lots of the mob for the duration but the rest of us are starting to see the image we had an inkling about for some time. The glorious leader is welding power in all sort of "Bush-Ways" with a Chicago flavor.

The Chicago Tribune looks at his firing of an inspector general and the Chicago threats on others.

Newsweek looks at how the Obama Administration is not as transparent as it said it was going to be. Big surprise.

PS: Slate.com sums up the weeks dialogue on how Obama remains personally popular while the popularity of his ideas sink and sink.

On...Fun Music

Been a while. Grading 1200 AP US History Essays and Staining a Deck can suck up the time.

From the Fun Music Department.

Weird Al Yankovic has a a couple of new songs out: Whatever you Like and Craigslist (done in a Doors style)

Ben Folds has hooked up with a dozen University's a Cappella groups to cover his songs. Pretty funny. I really liked The University of Rochester's version of "Army."

You can go to any music sites (iTunes or Napster) to sample.

On...A Can of Worms

Abortion/Slavery: The Connection

I haven't read her regularly but Megan McArdle over at the Atlantic has had a few good blog posts lately. She has opened the floodgates with a piece on Abortion and Violence and the connection to slavery. Brave woman, but pretty persuasive in many ways. I wish her luck, but if you blog for the Atlantic you get paid to do this type of intellectual battling. If this is your cup of tea enjoy...

Begins HERE

Contiues HERE

On...Infatuation

Gettin' Away with the Goods

Robert Samuelson has written a great number of fine articles and I have posted a bunch in the past, but his latest needs to be blessed with a greater audience. The Obama Infatuation is a very non-partisan examination of the dangerous (or perhaps dangerous) love-fest the media has on our current president. The Crush they carried throughout the election (See SNL's awesome early take on it) has carried well past the honeymoon. As Samuelson suggests, we need a skeptical media. We need tough questions asked on our behalf. No government regardless of party can just skip around and do what it wills with no questions asked. That's a dictatorship or worse yet a banana republic.

I'm afraid that no good will come of this. For either the nation or Obama. He needs to avoid flying too high. The last step can be a doozy. We can't be blind. Honest people and courageous people need to debate his agenda and his view of the future. And we need it now.