Retooled

I've updated the Tools section of the right link-bar, and renamed it the Toolbox. Dictionary.com is new, and Mapquest has been replaced by Google Maps, under the more easily indexed title "Maps".

Google Maps is, for lack of a better word, hot. Smokin'. The shiznit. All that. It's the Lamborghini of map websites. Platinum. The ace of spades. It's the longbow to Mapquest's heavy cavalry, and InstantReplay is Agincourt. Instead of filling in boxes for address, city, state, and zip, you just type whatever you know in one big Googlebar. Type in "bwi", and you get a map of Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Woot!

Guys love getting new tools.

InstantExpert: Beer

InstantReplay thinks everybody should be an expert in everything. Failing that, you should at least be able to pretend you know everything. So in advance of the Fourth of July weekend, here's the InstantExpert's guide to talking about beer as if you actually know it.

First, attitude. When talking about beer, the key is to appear as though you know everything without appearing too interested. Cultivate an informed bored detachment, and change the subject shortly after scoring whatever "I look smart" points you need to score. This not only protects you from potentially destructive follow-up questions, but it also elevates you from a rather unphilosophical (and thus image-unfriendly) topic.

Second, beer basics. Ask Yahoo summarizes the basic types of beer neatly:

• Ale - made with a top fermenting yeast, ales are described as "hearty, robust, and fruity."
• Bitter - a mainstay in English pubs, this golden-brown draft ale is top-fermented, hoppy, dry, and lightly carbonated.
• Lager - made with a bottom fermenting yeast, lagers are characteristically "smooth, elegant, crisp, and clean." Comparable to pilsener.
• Stout - typically dark, heavy, and richly flavored, stout is "top-fermented beer made from pale malt, roasted unmalted barley, and often caramel malt."

Beers in a Box explains the brewing process, and the distinction between top- and bottom-fermentation, but you don't need to know that to look smart. Just remember that lager is fermented and aged at cooler temperatures than other beers, which is why it ferments at the bottom.

Third, pouring. Buy a twelve-pack of Schlitts and practice until you can fit the entire beer into a glass no bigger than the can without a drop of spillage. This is a crucial skill, because in four out of five beer-related situations, your only opportunity to show off your aley knowledge will be the pour. Not unrelated to pouring is warmth: beer should be served below room temperature, but above fridge temperature. Before serving a good beer, allow it to warm up just a bit to bring out its flavor.

Fourth, selection. Beer isn't ice cream, and having a "favorite flavor" will utterly ruin your connoisseur image. Click here for the 2004 International Beer Competition winners (in .pdf), if you want to taste (or just name-drop) some champs. Rubbing shoulders with the Belgian and English heavyweights is Boston's own Samuel Adams, which snagged golds with its SA Light and SA Winter Lager in the "lagers up to 4.2%" and "seasonal beers" categories. In general, it's safe to take whatever beer is local at your place of purchase, especially if you are travelling or if the bar brews its own. This is both slightly patronizing and a way to snag a bottle that hasn't been transported over land and sea. A study of the American macrobrew industry reveals that the conquest of the market by the so-called luxury beers (like Budweiser!) in the 1960's was accomplished not by transporting beer to new markets, but by opening new breweries there.

Fifth, handling. From the NYTimes article that inspired this post:

As in every tasting of beer and ale, the biggest problem we encountered was with freshness. Mr. Carroll expressed shock at the number of ales that showed signs of damage from exposure to high heat or direct light. For all the he-man, macho attributes foisted on beer by marketing, it is surprisingly fragile and needs to be handled delicately. That means it needs to be refrigerated as much as possible and protected from direct light. Mr. Sullivan suggested that if you are selecting beer from one of those perpetually lighted coolers, choose bottles from the back, where they are at least partly protected.

To store beer, just be careful not to change its temperature. If you refrigerate it (or buy it chilled), do not warm it up again. Better yet, store it in a cooler in your basement until you need to chill it for drinking.

More tips can be found at Beer Advocate, which has a huge section of "beer education", where you can hone your expertise. In particular, learn to match beers and cheeses. The general principle (much like with wine-matching) is that the stronger the cheese, the stronger the beer.

Last, but most importantly, taste your beer. From Beer Advocate:

Now sip the beer. Resist swallowing immediately. Let it wander and explore your entire palate. Let your taste buds speak. Note the mouthfeel, the consistency of the liquid's body, and breathe out during the process of tasting. This process of exhaling is called "retro-olfaction" and will release retained stimulations at the mucus and mouthfeel level, but at a higher temperature. At times this will be the same as the olfactory process if not different and complimentary. Try to detect any sweetness, salty flavors, acids and general bitterness. Explain what they are, or what they are similar to.

Describe a beer at your peril. It is the foremost temptation of the budding faux expert to run at the mouth using words like "fruity" and "hops". But there are those with better taste buds and more beer experience. As Realbeer.com points out, what you think is a fancy foreign brew may simply be skunked beer. Instead, describe conservatively and only say what you really do taste. Here's the judges' description of Sammy Light from the 2004 IBC:

Bittersweet, toasted malt is the main feature, with hops subdued except for a perfumed, floral note, but the judges considered this a clean and very drinkable beer.

So have a good Fourth of July drink this weekend, and if anyone asks you how you know so much about beer, just tell them your learned it drinking with me.

Tomorrow's Energy, Today's Discount

The International Thermonculear Experimental Reactor consortium (USA, EU, Japan, South Korea, Canada) have agreed to build in France. This is a big step towards having clean, non-nuclear-waste-producing fusion power. The reactor is not expected to be used for consumer electricity until 2050.

The process is extremely complex and extremely costly (NYTimes throws out the number $10 billion), and we can assume that much of the science needed to successfully run this sucker will be developed between now and 2050. Hopefully, $10 billion will be enough to squeeze some serious innovations out of the world's scientists, one of whom was quoted in the NYTimes article:

The machine is very complicated.

Indeed. But will it do anything about our $60-a-barrel oil in the intervening decades? Actually, yes. Oil is pumped in most major producers at rates set strictly by national governments with long-range views (monarchies don't live on four-year cycles). If they see higher oil prices to the end of the horizon, they have an incentive to keep the taps tight, making the most of their resources. Fusion, fuel-cell, nuclear, and other alternative fuels, however, are a threat to oil producers - not a threat today, but a future threat. Lowering the estimated cost of oil in 2050, lowers the actual cost today by decreasing the incentive for producers to hoard their crude. Does ITER mean I'll be able to spend $1.25 a gallon on my Fourth of July roadtrip this weekend? No, but it might mean that next year's gas prices remain at $2.10, and aren't $2.60 or $3.10. And that's probably good for all of us.

Vanitas Politatum

I'm generally unimpressed with Peggy Noonan's partisan rants in the Wall Street Journal. But this week she's avoided the partisanship and pointed out the sheer shameless vanity of public officials.

...the senators who spoke referred to themselves with such flights of vanity and conceit--we're so brave, so farsighted, so high-minded--that it was embarrassing...

Sen. Barack Obama, flapping his wings in Time magazine and explaining that he's a lot like Abraham Lincoln, only sort of better... There is nothing wrong with Barack Obama's résumé, but it is a log-cabin-free zone. So far it also is a greatness-free zone. If he keeps talking about himself like this it always will be...

I admire Bill Frist, but can you imagine George Washington referring in public, or in private for that matter, to his many virtues? In normal America if you have a high character you don't wrestle people to the ground until they acknowledge it. You certainly don't announce it...

Why did [the Clintons] feel it right to inject a partisan political component into a spiritual event? Why take advantage of the good nature and generosity of an old hero? Why, after spending their entire adulthoods in public life, have they not developed or at least learned to imitate simple class?

The Supreme Court this week and last issued many rulings, and though they were on different issues the decisions themselves had at least one thing in common: They seemed to reflect a lack of basic human modesty on the part of many of the justices... Local government can bulldoze Grandma's house because it's in the way of a future strip mall that will add more to the tax base? The Ten Commandments can appear on public land but not in a courthouse, but Moses, who received the Ten Commandments can appear in the frieze of the House but he'll be sandblasted off the Supreme Court? Or do I have that the other way around?

OK, so it's not an equal-opportunity bashing. But just because the majority of her examples are political opponents doesn't exempt most conservatives from the ego-inflationary horn-blowing of politics. Maybe that's why we liked George W. Bush: he was more interested in telling us what he saw in America than what he saw in the mirror. Of course, he's not immune to Washington Syndrome and (like Frist) his public persona has changed a great deal since arriving in this town. In fact, it's gotten so bad that I didn't even read his speech from yesterday, since the headlines are basically, "Bush Says He's Doing a Good Job".

Is there any hope in sight? I don't think so. But when in doubt, vote against the incumbant.

Just Desserts Cafe

Reason #58 why New Hampshire rocks:

Could a hotel be built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter? A new ruling by the Supreme Court which was supported by Justice Souter himself itself might allow it. A private developer is seeking to use this very law to build a hotel on Souter's land.

Justice Souter's vote in the "Kelo vs. City of New London" decision allows city governments to take land from one private owner and give it to another if the government will generate greater tax revenue or other economic benefits when the land is developed by the new owner... Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a request to Chip Meany the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road. This is the present location of Mr. Souter's home.

I, for one, would pay to stay in the Lost Liberty Hotel. Full story here, hat tip to Drudge.

Red Hot

Quick stat: in their last dozen games, the Sox are 11-1 and have outscored opponents by a combined score of 84 to 28. That's an average game score of 7 to 2.3. Booyah!

Test

Testing...1...2...3

In case you can't see it, the browser I'm on now is moving all the content of posts below the end of the right navbar. Chime in if you know how to fix this.

Private Property Becomes Passe

The Supreme Court continued its headlong tumble down the slippery slope of abbrogating personal freedom. In the name of the Public Good, the Court ruled, municipalities can seize private homes and businesses and sell them off to developers for projects they deem more worthy.

The NYTimes assesses the damage:

In a bitter dissent, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said the majority had created an ominous precedent. "The specter of condemnation hangs over all property," she wrote. "Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory."

"Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private property, but the fallout from this decision will not be random," she wrote. "The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms.

"As for the victims," Justice O'Connor went on, "the government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more. The Founders cannot have intended this perverse result."

Justice Stevens was joined in the majority by Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. Justice O'Connor's fellow dissenters were Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas...

But New London officials said the overall good that will come from private development in the Fort Trumbull area outweighs the rights of the individual homeowners. "We're pleased," Edward O'Connell, attorney for the New London Development Corporation, told The A.P.

Of course, this newfound coercive power of government won't be used egregiously in the immediate future. Instead, it serves to bolster the growing list of Powers being stockpiled by the Federal government at the expense of the Rights of the citizens.

For further reference, check out Rhinehold's post at Watchblog, and don't forget the last time the Court bogarted one of our rights, just two weeks ago.

The Empire Strikes Back

If this wasn't against Tampa Bay, it would be amazing:

Robinson Cano and Jeter singled against Franklin Nunez, then Ruben Sierra plated Cano with an RBI fielder's choice. Sheffield battled from behind in the count against Nunez, singling to put runners at the corners.

A-Rod singled in Jeter, cutting the lead to 11-9. Travis Harper replaced Nunez, then Hideki Matsui doubled to right field, scoring Sheffield and moving Rodriguez to third. With their lead down to one, the Rays opted to intentionally walk Jason Giambi, giving them a chance at an inning-ending double play.

With the crowd of 40,241 chanting "Bernie! Bernie!" in unison, Williams had something else in mind, smoking the first pitch over Hollins' head in center field. All three runners scored on the triple, giving New York a 13-11 lead.

"It's where you want to be," Williams said. "That's what the game is all about -- being able to perform in situations like that. It was great that I was able to do it."

"That was big," Sheffield said. "Everybody jumped on the top step when Bernie hit that ball. You know how hard he works, so you want to see him come through."

Posada followed with a two-run homer, and after Jeter and Sierra singled, Sheffield drilled a three-run shot, his second of the game.

A-Rod and Matsui followed with solo shots, giving the Yankees back-to-back-to-back home runs off Harper, who was charged with nine runs in the frame. It was the 10th time in history that the Yankees hit three consecutive homers in a regular-season game, the first since May 8, 1994, against Boston. They also hit three straight homers in Game 1 of the 1997 American League Division Series, against Cleveland.

"When Sheffield hit the home run, then Matsui hit the home run, then A-Rod hit the home run, it was like, 'Wow, when is this going to end?' " Williams said. "It was a great thing to see."

When Russ Johnson finally flew out to right field to end the inning, the Yankees had scored 13 runs on 12 hits during their 35-minute turn at the plate.

"That eighth inning, it was a remarkable thing," Torre said. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. Everything we swung at was either a base hit or a home run."

"If there's a turning point in the season, this should be it," Williams said. "Hopefully, there will be more like this to come."

Yes, it's a turning point for the Yankees: from now on, they'll beat the cellar dwellers consistently, and turn around their 3-5 record against the Florida Folders.

"Play It Again, Sam"

Hat tip to Drudge for linking to the AFI's Top 100 movie quotes. Here're a few:

• 2. "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse," "The Godfather," 1972.
• 10. "You talking to me?" "Taxi Driver," 1976.
• 12. "I love the smell of napalm in the morning," "Apocalypse Now," 1979.
• 29. "You can't handle the truth!", "A Few Good Men," 1992.
• 32. "Round up the usual suspects," "Casablanca," 1942.
• 51. "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?", "Dirty Harry," 1971.
• 61. "Say `hello' to my little friend!", "Scarface," 1983.
• 79. Striker: "Surely you can't be serious." Rumack: "I am serious ... and don't call me Shirley," "Airplane!", 1980.
• 85. "My precious," "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," 2002.
• 99. "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!", "The Wizard of Oz," 1939.

Opposition Wins

The Lebanese opposition won all 28 of the seats contested in the last round of this month's parliamentary elections, giving them a small majority and propelling the erstwhile opposition into power. CSMonitor has a nice bullet-point breakdown.

Errata

Steven Spielberg's Into the West series on TNT is pretty cool, but it isn't as well-polished as some of Spielberg's previous work. Some mistakes I noticed in the first forty-five minutes of tonight's episode:

A character advertizes California as "Shangri-La". That term, however, was coined in 1936 by James Hilton in The Lost Horizon.

In a scene set in 1837, a Crow Indian drops a Lakota from the saddle while both are riding at some 150 yards. The odds of that happening on the first shot with likely outdated ordnance are prohibitive.

The wagon train going west goes downstream along a large river (the Platte or Missouri, it would have to be) through the Prairies. Downstream on the prairie is, of course, east.

Friday Buffet

Happy Friday, everybody. Who doesn't like a buffet to start their weekend?

TIME Mag is thinking like InstantReplay: they're asking around to figure out who the G.O.P. frontrunners are for 2008. One name I had forgotten was that of Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, who's been seen in New Hampshire at least once. He comes in on the Chatter Rankings with a 198, which would have placed him ahead of Hagel and Rice on Tuesday's charts.

In the same vein, the Concord Monitor says that conservative groups, headed by the Family Research Council, have been interviewing and screening G.O.P. hopefuls with an eye to creating a united conservative front that could triumph over the McCain/Giuliani split likely in the primaries.

Tom DeLay has been enjoying a quiet June. But it might be getting busier: Newsday got a scoop today that there may be a conflict of interest with Exxon-Mobil. It's a weak scandal, compared to the others, but it could be enough of a spark that it reignites the discussion of DeLay's scumminess. I have to say, the fact that the media did not utterly (and successfully) crucify him is proof positive that the conservative trend in news is a reality.

The latest economic news says that we have more of the same: strong growth without spending restraint. When one is in a hole, one should stop digging. Instead, we've set a new record with our first-quarter current account deficit. Hat tip to Drudge.

The EU's troubles just keep compounding. The current fight over agricultural funding is just a crude divide-the-pie problem as European countries fight like cats to steal money from each other. This shouldn't shake the EU's economic or political foundations, but it sure looks ugly coming on the heels of the "Non" and "Nee" votes.

Iran goes to the polls today. Check out Open Democracy's election headquarters, which has an election day log. Iran's blogfather, Hoder, thinks reformist Mostafa Moeen (also spelled 'Moin') will edge out establishment candidate (and former president) Hashemi Rafsanjani. Brooding Persian is one blogger who plans to sit the election out. Low turnout, says the CS Monitor, is the regime's greatest fear, which shows that they consider the election something of a sham themselves.

The Red Sox have won four in a row, and have the pleasure of hosting Pittsburgh tonight. They need to keep running it up against the weak teams for the rest of June, and then take it up a notch to battle it out with Baltimore and New York on each side of the All-Star Break.

Librarians, Libertarians

In a good sign today, the Republican Congress is pulling back from a Patriot Act provision that would allow the FBI to snoop into book purchases and library checkouts. This was an unnecessary provision (it was never used, fortunately), and its reversal is a good sign that Congress is willing to discern between the baby and the bathwater in the War on Terror.

How 750 Students Saved Florida

Check out my latest post on school choice at Watchblog, as well as the source article, an OpinionJournal editorial by activist Clint Bolick. He's got some astounding numbers that you need to see.

Personality 1, Character 0

David Brooks correctly diagnoses the cause of the degradation of middle-class popular culture as the victory of personality and "self" over character.

The middlebrow impulse in America dates at least to Ralph Waldo Emerson and the belief that how one spends one's leisure time is intensely important. Time spent with consequential art uplifts character, and time spent with dross debases it...

Middlebrow culture was killed in the late 50's and 60's, and the mortal blows came from opposite directions. The intellectuals launched assaults on what they took to be middlebrow institutions, attacks that are so vicious they take your breath away...

At the same time, pop culture changed. It was no longer character-oriented; it was personality-oriented. Readers felt less of a need to go outside themselves to absorb works of art as a means of self-improvement. They were more interested in exploring and being true to the precious flower of their own individual selves.

Thus the need for Club Infinite Knowledge, InstantReplay, and the other attempts we make to recapture culture and depth. Thus the appeal of the Star Wars ethos, where self-sacrifice is the highest virtue.

The Fifties had plenty of "pop culture": greased hair, muscle cars, and rock 'n' roll. But those things were kept in proper perspective and in the domain of youth and entertainment. But the Fifties also had Animal Farm, the G.I. Bill and Brown v. Board of Education. We have the State of California v. Michael Jackson.

Free-For-All 2008: A Tale of Two Virginians

Among the candidates who could be described as "middle-of-the-party" and "electable", two Virginians have stood out to pundits. Governor Mark Warner is the Democrat, and he has announced plans to form an exploratory PAC to raise money toward a possible presidential run in 2008. His single allowed term as governor expires at the end of this year, so I have my doubts as to whether he can keep himself on the radar screen during 2006 and early '07. Also, a Republican win in this year's gubernatorial would seriously undermine his credentials as a winner, says the Richmond Times-Dispatch, even though it's his number two, Lieutenant Governor Timothy Kaine, who is actually running for the top spot.

Warner could and might challenge the other Virginian, Republican George Allen, for the latter's senate seat in 2006. A Warner win would essentially take both out of contention for '08; Allen would be a loser, and Warner would be too new to the Senate to justify spending his first two years there making a serious run at the presidency. However, Warner is unlikely to succeed against Allen, say both the Roanoke Times and Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), and the long odds will probably scare away Warner, as a loss would effectively kill his presidential plans.

More on Allen, who was a Virginia governor in the 1990's: He made his big splash in the pre-race by winning a National Journal straw poll of pundits in April. Allen has down-home style and a penchant for football analogies (his dad coached the 'Skins; the Roanoke Times article includes one such gridiron reference), and maintains his street cred with the GOP's conservative base. Allen picked up John Thune's political advisor last January, a hard-hitting operative whom Slate compares to Karl Rove. Newsweek, meanwhile, compares Allen to Reagan. Allen's On The Issues bullet points are unsurprising; he's basically a Reagan/GWBush Republican: pro-business, anti-regulation, anti-abortion, and weak on the budget. His strong suit is executive experience, and he's credited with founding Virginia's effective student testing as governor.

Here's how the Virginians stack up against the rest of the field in this month's Chatter Rankings:

Rank	Candidate	Chatter	Rank Change
R.1	Sen. Bill Frist	1,740	0
R.2	Sen. John McCain	1,540	+3
R.3	Sen. George Allen	696	+6
R.4	Newt Gingrich	445	+2
R.5	Gov. Jeb Bush	390	+3*
R.6	Gov. Mitt Romney	380	+4
R.7	V.P. Dick Cheney	371	+1
R.8	Rudy Giuliani	285	-6
R.9	Gov. George Pataki	202	-6
R.10	Secy. Condoleezza Rice	160	-6
R.11	Sen. Chuck Hagel	82	-4
...............	...............................................	.......................	...............
D.1	Sen. Hillary Clinton	1,580	0
D.2	Howard Dean	785	+2
D.3	Sen. John Kerry	726	-1
D.4	Sen. John Edwards	490	+1
D.5	Gov. Mark Warner	370	NEW**
D.6	Gov. Bill Richardson	270	0
D.7	Sen. Evan Bayh	177	N.R.***
D.8	Sen. Joseph Biden	165	-5

Notes: The Chatter Rankings are created by searching each candidate's name plus "2008" in the Google News database.
* Jeb Bush was not ranked last month, but would have placed 8th; his change is calculated from that point.
** Mark Warner was not tested last month.
*** Evan Bayh was tested but did not qualify last month.
This month's tested-but-not-qualifying list includes Russell Feingold, Colin Powell, Judd Gregg, Barack Obama, Al Sharpton, and John Ashcroft.
Chuck Hagel has fallen to probationary status: another month or two in the hole and he's out.

Among the obvious changes on this month's chart are the fall of the New York Republicans and of the foreign policy experts, Biden and Hagel. Governors are up in general, but so are the two Republican Senators who are emerging as frontrunners, Allen and McCain. Everything I've read indicates that Hillary has a virtual lock on the Democratic nomination, but a lot can change in three years, and that's why we won't stop looking to see who's poised to fill the void if she steps out of the race for some reason.

Howard Dean is wildly over-ranked this month; most of his press is negative and pertains to his too-high-profile position as Chief Democrat. Likewise Bill Frist, who emerged from the filibuster fight looking both petulent and ineffective. However, neither can be counted out, because Americans have short memories, and most Americans aren't even watching politics this year.

Please search your own candidates - Ali Baba found my ommission of Jeb Bush last month.

Debt Comes Due

President Bush knew he was incurring a political debt when he coopted the Pakistani dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf into his coalition against terrorism. Now part of that debt is coming due.

Musharraf is only a step above Saddam Hussein in the rankings of autocratic odiousness, and Nicholas Kristof unleashes a scathing torrent in Musharraf's direction on the NYTimes editorial page today. He does so not without good reason: his friend Mukhtaran Bibi, a victim of tribal "justice" turned human rights activist, has been kidnapped by the government and prevented from leaving the country or contacting anyone outside.

According to Dawn, a Karachi newspaper, the government took this step, "fearing that she might malign Pakistan's image." Excuse me, but Ms. Mukhtaran, a symbol of courage and altruism, is the best hope for Pakistan's image. The threat to Pakistan's image comes from President Musharraf for all this thuggish behavior.

Indeed. And props to Kristof for using his bully pulpit with such unmitigated zeal for truth, justice, and individual rights. As for Mr. Bush, his debt is indeed due. Either he alienates Musharraf by following Kristof's recommendation of standing up for Ms. Mukhtaran, or he has to swallow his vomit and turn a blind eye on a flagrant abuse of power.

Victory For the Racially Confused

Now that Michael Jackson has been cleared of all charges, only one question remains: who will actually believe the verdict, blacks, whites, or only the racially confused?

City of God

Bishop Augustine of Hippo in his own words:

Those philosophers who regard virtue as the ultimate human good try to make those others feel ashamed of themselves who think highly enough of the virtues, but who subordinate them to physical pleasure, making pleasure an end in itself and virtues merely a means to an end. The do this by picturing Pleasure enthroned like a high-born quess, surrounded by ministering virtues who warch her every nod, ready to do whatever she bids them. Thus, she bids Prudence to examine carefully in what way Pleasure may be both supreme and safe. She commands Justice to render whatever services she can in the interest of friendships which are necessary for bodily comfort, and to avoid doing wrong, lest Pleasure might be jeopardized by the breaking of laws. She bids Fortitude keep her mistress, Pleasure, very much in mind, so that, when the body suffers some affliction, short of death, the memory of former pleasures may mitigate the pangs of present pain. She orders Temperance to take just so much of food or of other pleasant things that health may not be endangered by any excess...

Thus, the virtues with all the glory of their dignity are made to minister to Pleasure, like the servants of an imperious but ill-famed mistress. The Stoics are right when they say that no picture could be more ugly and ignominious and difficult for good people to look at than this. But, I do not see how the pciture becomes much more beautiful if we imagine the virtues ministering to human glory. For, if Glory is not exactly a lovely lady, she has a certain vanity and inanity about her. Certainly, it ill becomes the gravity and solidity of the virtues to be her servants; so that, apart from pleasing men and their vainglory, Prudence should make no provision, Justice should share nothing, Fortitude tolerate nothing, Temperance moderate nothing. Ugly as this picture is, it fits those self-complacent and seeming philosophers who, in the guise of despising glory, pay no heed to what others think. Their virtue, if they have any, is just as much a slave to glory, though in a different way. For what is the self-complacent man but a slave to his own self-praise[?]

It is different with the man who believes in, hopes in, loves, and truly worships God.

City of God, Book V, Chapter 20

Re-read this passage until you identify the three types of men who are condemned by Saint Augustine.

And Again

For the second day in a row, the Sox score six at Wrigley, and lose. However, unlike yesterday, today wasn't a shutout. Instead, it was a case of Terry Francona managing the team out of a chance to win late.

Down a run going into the bottom of the 8th, Tito brought on Mike Myers to face a lefty, who reached on a base hit. That's Myer's fault; not Francona's. But then, with righties coming up, he went to Matt Mantei, who has been shelled of late, instead of the more consistent Mike Timlin. Both pitchers worked in yesterday's game, but if the reason Tito didn't bring Mike in today was overwork, then it's his own fault, as I pointed out in yesterday's post. Timlin had no business pitching in a blowout. Mantei, as you now, coughed up an inherited runner plus one more of his own, and the Sox came up one run short in their trademark 9th-inning rally. Boo.

Tomorrow, they look to avoid a sweep with the scary battery of Wakefield-Varitek, which didn't look so hot in St. Louis earlier this week.

Cubs Are Wild

The Sox pitching staff was dismantled by the Chicago Cubs lineup. Generally, I enjoy afternoon weekday games, as I get to turn gameday onto my work computer. This time, however, it was less than a pleasure.

The good: Tito recognized that an eight-run deficit is an appropriate place for Alan Embree to pitch. David Ortiz hit two homers. Millar had a pinch hit, Olerud a pinch walk. Bellhorn stroked one out of the park.

The bad: Manny went 0-for-4, dropping his average below .250. Sox batters saw 3.25 pitches per plate appearance. In the innings when the game was still within reach (4th, 5th, and 6th), Maddux threw 9, 9, and 8 pitches to 4, 3, and 4 batters, respectively. With an eleven-run lead, Tito brought in Mike Timlin. He probably needed work, but if he had gotten into an extended inning it could have taken out for tomorrow, which the Sox need to win. In the third, Arroyo didn't even attempt to lay down a bunt with a runner on third and one out. Instead, he looked at two strikes, and swung at a third.

The ugly: Bronson Arroyo. John Halama. Alan Embree. Will this pitching staff ever turn it around?

Egypt Too?

The May 25 beating of pro-democracy protesters in Cairo by hooligans (and with the tacit approval of the police) has created some momentum for the first time. The disrespect shown women in particular has exorcised Egyptians, and prompted condemnations even from within the ruling party. Could the worldwide democratic revolution be reaching into the land of the Nile?

Varadarajan

Opinion Journal has a piece up today on their Taste page. The title is, Why Are Indians Winning So Many Spelling Bees? By Tunku Varadarajan.

Do you really need to read any further?

The Father of Freedom

The father of modern free-market thinking, Milton Friedman, graced the Wall Street Journal with his pen yesterday to describe the course of the school choice movement over the past fifty years. The idea was his initially, and he and his wife remain involved in the push to introduce market mechanisms in education. He concludes:

The good news is that, despite these setbacks, public interest in and support for vouchers and tax credits continues to grow. Legislative proposals to channel government funds directly to students rather than to schools are under consideration in something like 20 states. Sooner or later there will be a breakthrough; we shall get a universal voucher plan in one or more states. When we do, a competitive private educational market serving parents who are free to choose the school they believe best for each child will demonstrate how it can revolutionize schooling.

Of course, not everyone agrees with Dr. Friedman. I was genuinely surprised at the unified opposition to school choice among liberals on the Watchblog when I posted there on this topic earlier in the week. Apparently, the idea that parental choice is a worthy goal is not a matter of consensus. Just one more reason to vote Republican.

Plus Ca Change, Plus C'Est Le Meme Chose

The New York Times' lousy sportswriting is not a new phenomenon. They put up in PDF the story from Game 6 of the 1918 World's Series, which is the last time the Red Sox played in Wrigley Field (though Game 6 itself occurred at Fenway). It also marked the last time "thereby" was used in a baseball headline. Excerpts:

Flack's Muff Tells Tale: American League Team Corrals Thereby Two Runs Needed to Settle Issue...the 1918 triumph marks the fifth world's series that the Red Sox have brought to the high brow domicile of the baked bean. Boston is the luckiest baseball spot on earth, for it has never lost a world's series... silly errors, and sillier bases on balls. A momentary lapse of control by Lefty Tyler sent two Red Sox runners, Carl Mays and Dave Shean, to berths on the bases on dead-head tickets... perambulated... the ball squeezed its way through Flack's buttered digits... valedictory... Chopin's Funeral March... the gleaming sun of admiration did not shine... Silent was the trumpet voice of the ribald fan... Whitey discovered that his head did not revolve on his shoulders as it used to... Babe Ruth went out into left field and spent a perfectly miserable afternoon... this marvelous condition of elasticity... an outbreak of defensive baseball that was almost uncanny... Leon Trotsky Mann was thrown out by Li Hung Schang... the platter was about four feet in diameter... in years to come, whenever the name of his ancestors is mentioned, people will say, "Flack? Flack? Oh yes, that was the name of the fellow who muffed the ball in Boston way back in war times."

Wow.

L'Elitiste, C'Est Moi

Le journal anglais The Telegraph as un profil du le premier Francais nouveaux, M. Dominique de Villepin. Le profil est tres negatif, parce que M. de Villepin est un elitiste extraordinaire.

Membership of the enarque club gives him supreme self-confidence... He regards government as an intellectual, managerial puzzle, rather than a representational process. De Villepin does not belong to any political party. He has no parliamentary constituency. Unlike modern British prime ministers, he has no regular "surgery" with voters to remind him of their vulgar concerns about unemployment and so forth.

Ils sont sans doute correct. Le poete polemique ne se tient pas debout du courant dominant de le opinion publique Francais, comme exprime par le "Non" recent.

Mais moi, je il aime plus maintenant, precisement a cause de son elitisme nonpareil. Elitistes du mond, unissez-vous!

Chapeau tip to Best of the Web.

Yo' Mama

Today's kerfuffle is what Howard Dean said in a speech to some Dems last night:

Republicans are "a pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party."

Republican bloggers have been scrambling all day to point out how evil a thing this is to say. Why? It's really not news. Granted, it's not entirely accurate (40% of Hispanic voters chose Bush), but it's certainly not inflammatory. We have been trained, however, to respond as though attacked at any mention of race. Whether something libelous or negative has been said about a race doesn't matter: saying 'white' or 'black' in a political context is the equivalent of saying 'tu madre' in a colonia.

Baseball Draft

Nobody cares much about the baseball draft, inasmuch as it's largely a crapshoot, but it's happening today, and MLB.com has a nifty draft-tracker that pops up each pick as it is made, and allows you to view players by team, name, or position.

The first pick went to Arizona, who took Justin Upton, B.J.'s little brother, a Virginia high schooler. The next eight were collegiate, and then six of eight were high schoolers, including the Yankees with Carl Henry, an Oklahoma shortstop, with #17. The Red Sox first pick, #23 was Jacoby Ellsbury. Now the Sox have scored an apparent coup at #26 with Craig Hansen, closer from St. John's, who was a first-pick possibility among the pundits. I don't know if quality, health, or signability sent him down, but I can't help thinking he's a bargain at #26. More later...

Update: 1:33pm
More on the Sox first two picks: Jacoby Ellsbury is a center fielder, lefty, out of Oregon State University. 6'1", 185, born 9/11/83 in Oregon. Known for speed and defense, has a pretty good eye (30 BB, 17 K this year) but lacks pop.

Craig Hansen is a righty closer, pitched for St. John's University. 6'5", 185, born 11/15/83 in New York.

Some commentary: Gammons, writing May 22, lists both Ellsbury and Hansen as top-tier guys. Hansen was supposedly a lock to go to the Mets at #9, if not earlier.

Some people with more information are really live-blogging the draft. The writers at Baseball America predicted the top 18 picks (!!) accurately very shortly before the draft began. Their live blog is here. Also, Minor League Ball has a series of open comment threads for each round here.

Update: 2:10pm
The Sox have made their three first-round supplemental picks:

#42 - Clay Buchholz, Angelina (Junior) College, Texas, 6'3", 190, 8/14/84. Right fielder, bats left, throws right.

#45 - Jed Lowrie, another Oregonian, Stanford U, 6'0", 180, 4/17/84. Second baseman, switch-hitter.

#47 - Michael Bowden, the Sox's first high-schooler, Waubonsie Valley HS, Illinois. 6'3", 215, 9/9/86. Right-handed pitcher.

And the first second-round pick: #57 - Jonathan Egan, Cross Creek HS, Georgia. 6'4", 210, 10/12/86. Righty catcher, and only the third catcher taken in the draft.

Update: 2:25pm The other team to have a dream draft order was the Marlins, with five of the top 44 picks. Having made six picks, they have five pitchers (including two lefties), four of whom are straight from high school. I don't know if this is chance, design, or bias in setting up their rankings (i.e. valuing HS pitchers higher than most do). Meanwhile, the Yankees, they of the depleted farm system, have had just two picks - a high school shortstop at #17 and left-handed-batting righty pitcher out of U-Texas Austin at #63.

Update: 4:00pm
The Sox picked up their sixth pick at #138. William Blue is a high school righthandeded pitcher from Morro Bay, California. He's the youngest Sox draftee so far, born 4/5/87.

The Globe site has a draft tracker just for Sox picks with more details on the players. For instance, they tell us that Egan was highly ranked before he committed to Georgia for college. Drafting guys like him is one of the luxuries of having so many high picks: we can take a chance on better players rather than settling.

Update 4:45pm
With Reid Engel, younger than Blue by a month, picked up out of Lewis-Palmer HS in Colorado, the Sox have snagged four straight high schoolers. Engel is a left-hitting, right-throwing outfielder, and the Sox got him at #168.

Now they've got pick #198 (and so forth), which they'll spend on Jeffrey Corsalletti, an outfielder from the U. He also bats left and throws right, and is a native Floridian born 2/22/83.

The Cardinals have picked up Wilfrido Pujols with pick #200, wrapping up the sixth round, and InstantReplay will wrap up its draft coverage. I'll add any more tidbits I find in the comments, and I'd be interested in any real information on any of the new batch of Sox prospects.

Pro-Choice

Conservative NYTimes columnist John Tierney highlights a Florida Supreme Court case today over school choice. While the argument is old, the evidence he draws on is compelling:

As enrollment has dropped at Edison [a failing public high school], the student-to-teacher ratio has improved to about 22 from about 30. In the past two years, a new principal has revamped the administration and replaced half the teachers in the school. Under the new leadership, the average test score at the school last year rose dramatically - one of the largest increases of any high school in Florida.

Edison's improvement is not an isolated example, as three separate studies have found in Florida. Test scores have gone up more rapidly at schools facing the threat of vouchers than at other schools. The latest study, by Martin West and Paul Peterson of Harvard, shows that Florida's program is much more effective than the federal No Child Left Behind program.

Liberals' answer to these challenges should be to found excellent, cheap private secular schools. Instead, their response has been to demand that people pay more for and complain less about their existing public schools, whether good, bad or ugly.

Belgium's Finest

Congratulations to my brother Barnabas, who made the Belgian Junior League Baseball All-Star Team! He'll train six days a week for a month prior to the Europe Junior League championship tournament in Kutno, Poland, July 8-17. The Junior League is administered by Little League International, and is a division for 13- and 14-year-olds. I believe the teams which place well in the tournament will be invited to the Junior League World Series in Taylor, Michigan, August 14-20. This is played on a standard-sized baseball diamond, which is a significant step up from Little League.

The competition at Kutno will include England, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Moldova, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Austria. No word on the format of the tourney.

Here's the latest scouting report on Barnabas:

He is the smallest kid on the team; some of them look like they could be his dad. What he lacks in strength, he makes up for in other ways: agility, good fielding, knowledge of the game, team spirit, [and] a "feel" for a play.

Think David Eckstein.

Not only does this give me enormous pride in my brother, it also means I get to keep the car for most of July, which is not quite on par with when he told me I should get married so he could have his own room.

New Digs

Sorry for the dearth of content here in the last week-and-a-half. Moving really took a toll on my time and energy, and work has been somewhat busy.

My new "home" is a room in the house of a former roommate's co-worker, who is glad to have a bit of extra income, but doesn't need a long-term lease. I would have preferred, I think, living with other guys and with other renters, rather than a landlady, but it's not a bad situation. The other residents of the house are Honey, a mutt puppy, and Batna, an older house-cat. Honey is completely bonkers, and rather gainsays his moniker. Batna is uninteresting except that her name comes from the negotiation acronym for Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. This, IMHO, is an amusing name for an animal.

The house is on a dead end in a quiet residential neighborhood and is across the street from a small park. Very nice for privacy then, but not necessarily quietness: the neighbor's dogs couldn't be meaner or louder if they were rabid. Honey wants to be friends with them; they want Honey to be lunch.

I cycled all the way to work for the first time since moving there. It's ten miles by the shortest route, but I went a few extra miles to use one of the bike paths that gets from Falls Church into D.C. On the way home, I'll try the other one. Unfortunately, I no longer have a working sped/odometer, so I can't objectively compare the routes for length. I may end up doing one way here and the other way home, because it's significantly sloped and on the afternoon commute I'll more appreciate a gradual slope.

Walking It Off

As usual, the long quietude on InstantReplay indicates quite the opposite in my life. I've driven 1,000 miles and moved to Falls Church since last I posted. And it's been a tough week, outside of having a great time in Boston. Now I'm a bit sick, adjusting to a longer commute, and dealing with a broken bicycle. And there's nothing to take the edge off a bad day like a come-from-behind two-out walk-off home-field three-run-homer from my Big Papi against a first-place team.