Guard Dog

The games today have been most excellent! I've had them on the radio all day

Dammit Shady that sucks! I know how that feels. Hopefully they sent you off with a decent severance.

All I can say is thank God you choose a career in software sales and not politics.

Bruce, did I read that correctly? Did you seriously suggest stripping Americans of their citizenship and deporting them for thinking incorrectly as an improvement? Sometimes I'm not sure when you're being serious.

The Blue Jays came to play.

Research is a Stalinist plot to indoctrinate people into Marxism. but clarence thomas was a stalinist. oh, the humanity! truly a moral/immoral conundrum. how do the stalinists feel 'bout excluding a fellow stalinist? as an aside, am not too surprised if clarence thomas' history has been glossed over. he is a taciturn Justice who, perhaps ironically, is one o' the most prolific writers on the Court. the thing is, J Thomas' voluminous writings is primarily concurrences and dissents. and as the second african-american Justice, he don't quite have same trailblazer cache as does thurgood marshall. larry doby mr. doby were the first black player in the american league o' mlb, and the second african-american to play in the big leagues after jackie robinson. mr. doby faced same/similar hurdles as robinson, but other than hardcore baseball fans, the number o' folks who recognize larry doby is small. "Larry Doby was a good and honorable man, and a tremendous athlete and manager. He had a profound influence on the game of baseball, and he will be missed. As the first African American player in the American League, he helped lead the Cleveland Indians to their last World Series title in 1948, became a nine-time All-Star and was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998. Laura joins me in sending our condolences to Larry's family during this difficult time." -george w.bush 'pon the death o' larry doby is larry doby in the museum? if he is, am betting that he gets much more limited recognition than jackie robinson. clarence thomas doesn't deserve much o' the ire he has drawn from politicians. it took J. Thomas a few years to develop a coherent guiding philosophy, but since then he has been consistent if convoluted. clarence thomas were not a groundbreaker culturally or philosophically. he were the second black Justice, and his concurrences and dissents were tending to be influential only o' other Justices. his decidedly libertarian and originalist opinions offended democrats and minorities. his willingness to use the Declaration o' Independence as a legal lighthouse offended more than a few legal scholars. the refusal to even recognize lawyers during oral arguments angered everybody in the legal community other than fellow Justices. a willingness to quote ayn rand nowadays is also gonna cheese off politicians on both sides o' the aisle. so yeah, in a museum dedicated to african-american history, clarence thomas is gonna be a divisive presence. am not taking wod's sources (HA!) as dispositive o' some kinda neglect o' J. Thomas, but it would not surprise us if such happened to the Court's Larry Doby. would be an unfortunate but predictable oversight. HA! Good Fun! Excellent post. I am ashamed to say I didn't know Larry Doby was the first AA player in the American League. I always thought that was Satchel Paige. But I knew they were teammates on the '48 championship team. A few years back I read Clarence Thomas's memoir "My Grandfather's Son". I had not paid much attention to the Supreme Court until the Kelo case. After that I have watched it very closely having seen what a terrible and lasting impact it can have and how much damage those 9 people have the potential to do. Since then I have admired Justice Thomas for his views on Federalism and 10th Amendment cases. He has been extremely reluctant to overturn state statutes from the federal bench. Would that some of the others were so restrained. He is a complicated man. His rise from extreme poverty to Holy Cross to Yale and ultimately to the federal bench and the Supreme Court of the United States is one that should have earned him a great deal of recognition and admiration. It hasn't. Politics is quickly becoming a disease in this country. Far too many people believe your political opinions define you as a human being. Far too many think if someone holds opposing views it must be because they are stupid, or evil, or (this is BruceVC's favorit) don't understand the facts. I remember a few years back MSNBC commenting on Thomas asking a question during oral arguments for the first time in his tenure. They went on at length that the question was dumb and stopped just short of calling him dumb. Just by a hair short. The New York times absolutely excoriated his memoir and actually used words like petty and vindictive to describe him. But if they took the time to read the book they would learn how he came to believe what he does and who his influences are. As I said he is a remarkable man.

I saw it all from the 3rd inning. Great game, real pitchers duel. I love games like that that can break on a singe hitter.

Don't get the Cherokee. The transmission is terrible as it can't keep on the power at all. Get a six or an Accord. I am in Oregon now. Stressing because of my cat being stressed out. Although that seems to mostly be because I am living in the bacement of a friends house who has two cats of her own and a dog. First real day at the job is tomorrow, but I stopped bye today Good luck!

http://www.thewrap.com/cnn-instant-poll-hands-debate-victory-to-mike-pence-over-tim-kaine/ So the general consensus is Pence won the debate over Kaine. This doesn't change people's view on who to vote for in the presidential debate as it applies to VP only Probably not. Now if Pence were the Presidential Candidate it might. Probably best not think of roads not taken. It will only depress us further.

I knew it! Pre-teen girls in green uniforms selling cookies that, while they don't taste all that good, are strangely addictive. Diabolical! But thanks to Gromnir and WoD I'm on to them now. I'll have to take matters into my own hands to foil this Stalinist plot!

You'd think they'd be a bit more subtle.

Sorry everyone. I think I started the Stalinist rant with a quote two pages ago Then I poked the bear with the brown shirt comment. That was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. It was not a Stalinist plot to get WoD on a Stalinist kick!

Nah, that's more like brown-shirt fascism that anything else

And from the same show DS9 Trump would be the admiral who used fear of infiltrating founders to declare martial law on Earth.

I agree with Grom. Assange is not 100% credible but it is very easy to believe the worst of Clinton when the worst is all you ever get out of her. If he wanted to torpedo her the time to do it was in the Primaries. The thing is of the Democrats had nominated... heck nearly anyone else they would be walking away with this thing against Trump. Mark Schweitzer, Tulsi Gabbard, James Webb, Jack Markell, Bill Richardson just to name a few are all Democrats who would make a decent President and would make short work of Trump. All of them have Presidential aspirations. But it was made clear to the whole party it was going to be Clinton and take what they did to Sanders as proof of their sincerity. The Republican side is different. The Orange Cloud of Death was actually voted in by the party voters (because unlike the Dems, the Republicans actually elect their candidate) over the objection of the party leaders who at least know a walking, talking f--k up when they see one. Any of the other candidates should be making short work of Clinton but we're stuck with who we're stuck with.

It's true. We've finally taken the "lesser of two evils" thing too far. There is nothing Hillary Clinton can do now to drive away her voters. She could get up on a stage and insult everyone in her party and crowd and promise to sell them all to "wall street" and it would not change one of their votes because to them she would still be less terrible than Trump. Look at all the horrible things both of them have said and their poll numbers don't change. They are both fighting over the same 3 percentage points. I think Johnson and Stein have topped out. This is how it is. And you're right... it IS depressing. Will they met me bring my dogs if I move to Iceland?

The sad thing is, no one will care. This won't matter. That's because it's not about him. It's about stopping Clinton. The same it true with her. If Wikileaks releases proof she took a bribe in the Uranium One fiasco it won't matter because half of the country already thinks she did. The supporters of either candidate do not love them. Far from it. They the hate the other candidate more. It really is the epitome of electoral dysfunction.

I was just reading about the Pence/Kaine debate coming up. Am I the only one who would sleep a lot better it we could reverse these tickets? Have Pence and Kaine as the presidential candidates and those other two fools running for VP?

I thought this was a joke. That bit about Hillary Clinton wanting to use a weaponized drone to kill Juilan Assnage.. Apparently she was serious: http://redalertpolitics.com/2016/10/03/hillary-wants-drone-bomb-wikileaks-julian-assange/ I guess she comes from the Josef Stalin school of thought. "Death solves all problems. No man, no problem".

Hasn't that been the problem for years, though? That it is more important to vote for a "winner" than it is to vote for who you want to represent you? Therefore the goal is to win at all costs? This has been my explanation for the "if you don't vote democrate/republican you are throwing your vote away" types. The fault is not in our stars but ourselves. I guess. I'm not sure what that says about is as a people.... but it isn't good.

https://www.facebook.com/Danney-Williams-Clinton-1704956276415563/ All I can say is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0anBADA5pc&list=PLLUcYhPjxgkYZl1N16IOLjuPDbrur78Fj&index=3 The Clintons are the gift that just keeps on giving! It doesn't even matter if it's true.... it's still funny!

Great point. Ginsburg and Scalia were good friends and often socialized together with their families. I read an article in the paper yesterday that showed polls where people are losing friends over support of one candidate or another. Or even one political philosophy over another. One of my colleagues had an argument with her daughter over politics and they are not speaking. This is stupid. It is literally like hating someone for being a fan of a different sports team. I told her more than 100 million votes will be cast. He daughter voting for Hillary Clinton will not make her President. Even if she convinced her to vote for Trump that once vote will not make him president. This "problem" we are having where people are becoming so politically polarized is not healthy. And it starts with the Candidates. Trump and Clinton both are not just adding logs to the fire, they are adding gasoline soaked logs to the fire. Obama was no better, referring to people who would not support him as "enemies" and Clinton calling them "deplorables". Trump is nothing but bombast "punch him in the face!" and other comments. What will make it worse is if either of them gets elected and they try to ram through something radical right away. Like Obama did with the ACA and did it in such a scorched earth way. The next President needs to start out with a conciliatory tone like GWB did after 2000. Start out with some basic bread-and-butter actions that a divided Congress will support and will not piss anyone off. That would help. Trump would never do that though. Clinton probably would not either. And that is a shame.

And it's over. The Giants managed to get in so the even year thing is still going. The Giants, Red Sox, and Cubs all have ex-Rays players on them so that's who I'm rooting for to win it all. For the Marlins the year began with high expectations and ended in overwhelming tragedy. Losing Jose Fernandez was devastating not just to his family and teammates but to Marlins fans everywhere. I saw it on Facebook and couldn't believe it. As bad as the loss was for the people it was as big for the team. He was their biggest draw after the perennially under performing Stanton. Now a weak pitching staff is really weak. For the Rays it was an up and down year but a lot more down than up. A lot of injuries. So many that in July we were joking it was the Durham Bulls in Rays uniforms. That wasn't that far off. Couple that with under performing pitching and you get a losing recipe. They did turn it around but by that time they were so far under .500 there was nothing to do. So for my teams it's so long. But as Papa Hemingway wrote there will always be a spring.