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Are you a trade rumor junkie like me?
Today is the MLB non waiver trade deadline and that means rumors are swirling everywhere. And as a Mets fan my eyes are glued to MetsBlog. Run by Matt Cerrone, MetsBlog is the place for anything Mets, especially on a day like today when I expect Mets GM, Omar Minaya, to do some dealing.
For all other deadline day rumors and info, be sure to check out MLB Trade Rumors.
I love this time of year!
Techdirt blog has a story about prison inmates abusing copyright laws to extort prison officials.
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A group of inmates apparently copyrighted their names and then demanded millions of dollars from the prison they were in for using their names without permission. The claims were sent to the warden of the prison and when he didn't pay up, the prisoners were able to file claims against his property -- and then hired someone to seize the warden's property and freeze his bank accounts. At this point they then demanded to be released from prison before they would return the property. |
Though the plan didn't work, it shows that the definition of intellectual property is being pushed to its limits.
Thanks to JR for the story.
Tie up your dogs! Don't you know the Tour de France is in town?
There are some stories I just try to ignore. They're there, people read about it, and everyone soft of knows the details. But sometimes you read a bit more and realize the particulars are far worse than you could have imagined. As a football fan and a fantasy sports player, I follow day-to-day news of players and I've been reading about Vick's legal troubles overt the property he owned but supposedly never used. What started as a possible occurrence of dog fighting, had turned into a full blown enterprise that Vick may have been deeply involved. And what sets this apart from just the criminality is the barbarity of the situation. If true that Vick had knowledge of all this he has show himself to be a monster. A suspension likely and jail a possibility.
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When a Bad Newz Kennels dog was wounded in a losing fight, NFL star Michael Vick was consulted before the animal was doused with water and electrocuted. That’s just one of the gruesome details that emerged Tuesday when the Atlanta Falcons quarterback and three others were indicted by a federal grand jury… |
And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Just another chapter in the adventures of Ron Mexico. Hot Air has more.
I wasn't planning on writing about the Live Earth concert, as I think it is/was a complete joke. I've read that nearly a quarter-million air miles were wasted getting to this thing, 100,000 trees would need to be planted to offset the effects of the concert, and the garbage created showed no evidence of being recycled as promised.
So what was this concert really about? One giant Rubber Chicken spread over seven continents. A catwalk for all these supposed green celebrities to prance around patting each other on the back over their environmental achievements. This was the flavor of the week that made it a place-to-be-seen event as the photo ops continually presented themselves. Here is my favorite assessment, by Roy Spencer:
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[F]olks in the developed world who feel guilty about pollution decide it's time to do something drastic - like throw a worldwide-rock concert. |
In the aftermath we find out attendance was low, ratings were low, performances lacking, and really it was an all around awkward event. Nicholas Wapshott, from the New York Sun, called the event "middle-aged". Wikipeda describes the characteristics of middle-age as adults showing "visible signs of ageing such as loss of skin elasticity and graying of the hair. Physical fitness usually wanes, with a... accumulation of body fat, reduction in aerobic performance and a decrease in maximal heart rate. Strength and flexibility also decrease throughout middle age."
Could there be any better description of this fiasco?
Increasingly, I've been seeing commercials showing me how I can give my water a jolt of flavor. Crystal Light, which I like to make at home, has a product for a single serving that you can add to your boring old bottled water or just a glass of regular tap water.
But that's not good enough, that plain tasteless water is just too ordinary. So the folks at PUR have made a water filter system that adds flavor right at the tap! Amazing, you'll never have to taste water again.
Has it really come to this? That even our water is "boring" and needs to be altered? I've met people who say, "I hate drinking water, there's no taste, so plain". Hate water? I'm expecting them to follow up with "You know, air is pretty boring too, there's no flavor". Soon we'll have masks that give our air a nice cherry flavor.
Enjoy the day. God bless America.
When I reflect on the meaning of Independence Day I can't help but marvel at the founding father's vision for America. I've also had a longtime fascination with George Washington's ability to relinquish his power over the colonial armies. The temptation to take their military power and seize control is so great, history is littered with generals who decided the crown was much more appealing. And after the American Revolution, the people and American soldiers would have gladly named him King Washington.
Yet Washington found this notion of crowning himself king to be a "painful sensation". We should consider ourselves fortunate and lucky to have had such men, even with all their faults, paving the way for our future.
Joyce Lee Malcolm writes in today's Wall Street Journal about our good fortune. An article worth looking at.
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We were lucky in our generals. Unlike the commanders of nearly all revolutionary armies before and since, George Washington resisted the temptation to seize power. After England's civil war between King Charles I and parliament, Oliver Cromwell, Parliament's leading general, evicted what remained of parliament and made himself "Lord Protector." The great expectations of the French Revolution ended when Napoleon Bonaparte staged a coup against the republican government and later crowned himself emperor. Not only do victorious generals have a nasty habit of taking over, but once an army becomes entangled in politics it is extraordinarily difficult to remove it from public affairs. Numerous modern countries have tried to control their armies and failed. |
There was a chance that our country could have turned out quite differently. So every year, when July 4 rolls around, I take a few moments to be thankful for the leaders who founded America.