Category Archives: Fun

Johan Santana: Of Course He Would Pitch a No-No

Posted on June 1, 2012 | 2 comments

For 8 glorious years he was all ours.  Then it was gone and the wind blows cold in Minnesota.

Johan Santana Pitched a No-No for the New York Mets:

What stood between the Mets and their first no-hitter in their 50-year history was a matter of inches, Carlos Beltran and one deceiving baseball. Johan Santana was supposed to have a pitch count, but his left shoulder was not supposed to be this healthy, and for how well he danced with fate all night, it would not have mattered how many pitches he threw.

But in the sixth inning, on his way to no-hitting the St. Louis Cardinals, Santana left a pitch where Beltran could pull it down the left-field line. It appeared to be a fair ball, what would have been a double, what would have ended the no-hitter. The third-base umpire, Adrian Johnson, called it foul, and Beltran then grounded out.

Santana ran the count full against the next hitter, Matt Holliday, only to dip out of danger again by striking out Holliday on a chest-high changeup. All night it went like this, until Santana had completed his no-hitter, throwing 134 pitches even though Manager Terry Collins had said his limit was 115, and walking five batters. The Mets won, 8-0.

Santana was amazing to watch.  It appears that still is the case.

Roll on Johan, roll on!

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Amendment One: Role Of The State

Posted on May 8, 2012 | 2 comments

I was thinking about the whole debate and then the vote on North Carolina’s gay marriage amendment today.  One of the most interesting realizations was the number of liberals who voted with me today.

Think about it.  I’ve been advocating Liberty, real individual Liberty free of state coercion, for years now.  I’m as for two gay men getting married as I am for the owner of a bar refusing to serve those two gay men.  I’m as for the right to open a barber shop without a barber’s license as I am for allowing people to suffer the consequences of not obtaining health insurance.

Quite simply, I have a long standing history of advocating for the Liberty of the individual.  The Left most certainly does NOT.

The left clearly advocates for the state to intervene to feed people.

The left clearly advocates for the state to house people, to send people to college, to provide medical care and retirement.

The left is ALL about the state controlling people’s lives and restricting individual Liberty until the Statue of Liberty herself pukes.  The idea of Liberty to the Leftist is foreign and on that is despised and feared.

Why is it then, that now, in this debate, the Leftist resonates with the Libertarian?

Fascinating.

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Life Views

Posted on April 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

I mostly try to boil problems down to their simplest form.  This may explain why so many people feel I’m so wrong so often.  However, in life I find that this way of looking at, and then handling, problems has been rather successful for me.

Over time it has become more of a lifestyle than a management technique.

  1. Identify we have a problem.  This is harder than it may seem.
  2. Be very clear what it is that is making people mad or upset.
  3. Quit doing that thing in #2 while still allowing forward positive movement.

My problem with the various groups of people who self identify as “liberal” is that they either stop at #1 or skip #2 altogether while failing to continue moving forward.

This sums up my feelings perfectly.

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President Obama, College Kids and Phad Thai

Posted on April 24, 2012 | 2 comments

I love my wife and Phad Thai.

So, every Tuesday I drive to the local Thai restaurant, order Phad Thai pork, Thai Hot, to go and then run next door to buy 2 gluten free cupcakes.  I take every effort to ensure that I park, order, run and pay as efficient as I can; Phad Thai, Thai hot, is best eaten hot.

So you can imagine my immense frustration when I was blocked by a dozen of North Carolina’s finest for 30+ minutes until a certain President Obama could pass through safely on his way to UNC.

In all honesty, seeing the Presidential escort was very cool.  I gladly ate my cold Phad Thai knowing that I was within 50 yards of the most powerful man in all the world.

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The Bell Curve

Posted on April 24, 2012 | 4 comments

 

I’ve started another book.  I’m now reading “The Bell Curve” by the boys listed above.

Stats that struck me tonight:

Think of your twelve closest friends or colleagues.  For most readers of this book, a large majority of them will be college graduates.  Does it surprise you to learn that the odds of having even half of them be college graduates are only six in a thousand, if people are randomly paired off?  Many of you will not think it odd half or more of the dozen have advanced degrees.  But the odds against finding such a result among a randomly chosen group of twelve Americans are actually more than a million to one.

I am going to love this book!

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Feeding The Birds

Posted on April 22, 2012 | 2 comments

 

I have grown up to be my father.  I enjoy, hell, I LOVE to enjoy, feeding my birds and watching ’em play around the feeders, trees, shrubs and nesting boxes.  I love this.

And in the true economic spirit, I take much glee in pointing out to my birds there is no such thing as a free lunch.

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I labor for the money that I use to buy the food the birds eat.  For them, this represents  free lunch.  However, the birds live in a world that’s not always so nice.  See, the birds are subject to the predators that feed on them.  And in several cases I’ve been resting on my deck when all of a sudden there’s a horrible racket in the bushes off to the side.  I look over and see Mr. Hawk fly away with a very sad little bird in his mouth.

The other morning I came down stairs to find ‘ol Mr. Hawk resting ON MY DECK!  I ran to get the camera and I was actually able to get a pair of shots as he was waiting around for his next breakfast meal.

Now, I am conflicted.  I like my birds and when the hawk is around they fly away and hide.  On the other hand, if what I’m doing is faatening up hawk food so that I am able to enjoy my pet hawk….well, that’s pretty cool too.

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The Best Of Times

Posted on April 15, 2012 | 1 comment


Watching the Twins today. Had a great moment with my 6 year-old kid. Earlier in the weekend we began exploring what a batting average is. I explained it this way:

If Jeter has an average of .312 it means that if he has 1,000 chances to get a hit or get an out, he gets a hit 312 times.

As we watched the Twins some freakin’ guy named Clete steps to the plate for the hometown 9.  The child laughs at Clete’s .000 AVG 0 HRS 0 RBIS line.  Just as I say, “If  ‘ol Clete here were to get 1,000 chances to get a hit, he’d get ZERO of ….”

And then the bastard goes yard on me. Me boy fell out laughing. How cool is it that he got that?

Then he asked me if I thought the Twins would win now that we were up 3-2. I said, “No.” He said, “Why not daddy?” to which I replied, “Cause we’re a horrible ballclub son.”

He just nodded and said, “Yup.”

I just saw that we lost 4-3.

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Posted in Fun, Life, Raising Men

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Gedankenexperimente

Posted on April 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

Do you ever have that great moment or feeling when you finally find the name for that thing you think other people think makes you a weirdo?

I do and I found it the other day:

A while back, Sam introduced us to Trolley Problems. I refer to Trolley Problems as a proper noun, since it’s a category of thought-experiments (Gedankenexperimente) that I will be using to test our moral intuitions vis-à-vis euvoluntary exchange.

And it’s real:

A thought experiment or Gedankenexperiment (from German) considers some hypothesis, theory, or principle for the purpose of thinking through its consequences. Given the structure of the experiment, it may or may not be possible to actually perform it, and, in the case that it is possible for it to be performed, there need be no intention of any kind to actually perform the experiment in question. The common goal of a thought experiment is to explore the potential consequences of the principle in question.

Ahhh, it makes all the difference just to know.

 

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Voter Fraud Made East Courtesy Eric Holder

Posted on April 14, 2012 | 4 comments

Without comment:

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Posted in Fun, Politics: National

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Democrats Continue To Wage War On Women

Posted on April 14, 2012 | 7 comments

We all know that the democrats have tried to set up a fake republican “War on Women.”  It’s obvious that Obama is going to have to run on his record this time around and, as we all predicted, he has a very poor record to run on.

He knows this.  The DNC knows this.  Stephanopoulos knew this.  We all know this.

But it’s a fake war.  No one is denying women the ability to purchase health care or health care insurance.  No one is denying women the ability to purchase contraception.  And no one is denying women reasonable access to abortions.  Women make as much or more than men do.

In fact, if there were a “War on Women” it would be the legislation like the Lilly Ledbetter Act.  Legislation that attempts to mandate wages only serves to discriminate against the very group it is working to protect.   See minimum wage laws.

Anyway, the irony of the democrats creating this false narrative is hilarious.  If only because it’s the democrats doing the actual “waging.”

First it was Hilary Rosen.

Now it’s Bill Maher:

HBO’s Bill Maher weighs in on the Hilary Rosen controversy, dismissing it as a “non-consequential,” meaningless controversy. Maher also says Ann Romney “has never gotten her ass out of the house to work.”

“The language here was, perhaps, inartful, or perhaps America is a society that lives to fight stupid, non-consequential, meaningless controversies and this is the new one,” Bill Maher said during the panel portion of his HBO show “Real Time” last night.

“But what she meant to say, I think, was that Ann Romney has never gotten her ass out of the house to work. No one is denying that being a mother is a tough job, I remember that I was a handful. Okay, but there is a big difference in being a mother, and that tough job, and getting your ass out of the door at 7am when it’s cold, having to deal with the boss, being in a workplace, and even if you’re unhappy you can’t show it for 8 hours, that is a different kind of tough thing,” Maher observed last night.

Simply amazing.  I have no words to describe what we’re seeing.  Democrats accuse the right of waging war, there is no such war, and then THEY go and wage war.

I love it!  I hope Maher never stops talking.  He attacks Palin calling her a twat and then Ann Romney by saying that she never has to “get out the door at 7 am.”

Ricch!

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