Happy Passover? No, But Congratulations!

We were talking about it in the office today, why do people say, "Happy Passover" or "Happy Pesach?" It's not like Passover is the happiest if holidays. We are celebrating the Israelites escape (and 40 year trek) from Egypt. It was a pretty gruesome affair: locusts, river of blood, plague, raining cats and dogs, etc. Really, I think we should say, "Congrats, it's Passover." This more accurately reflects the history and describes the sentiment being expressed to (fellow) Jews.

Congrats, it's Passover, you are all chosen and shit.

Congrats, it's Passover, good thing you remembered to put that blood on your door.

Congrats, it's Passover, who doesn't love peanut butter on matzah?

Congrats, it's Passover, don't forget to not eat bread for a week and instead eat the dryest, grossest, mealiest substitute you can find.

Ok, the last one isn't so awesome, but I really think I'm onto something here.

Sent From My iPodPhone

Fantasy Draft '09

Similar to last year, I feel like posting my fantasy baseball draft results here for comment (from all two of you readers). I really struggled in the middle rounds of the draft, but I feel like I've got a lot of "upside guys," much like last year:

C	Ryan Doumit (Pit - C)
1B	Billy Butler (KC - 1B)
2B	Mark DeRosa (Cle - 2B,3B,OF)
3B	Chris Davis (Tex - 1B,3B)
SS	Stephen Drew (Ari - SS)
OF	Ryan Braun (Mil - OF)
OF	Ryan Ludwick (StL - OF)
OF	Shin-Soo Choo (Cle - OF)
OF	Mike Cameron (Mil - OF)
Util	Alex Gordon (KC - 3B)
Util	Brandon Phillips (Cin - 2B)
BN	Emilio Bonifacio (Fla - 2B)
BN	Lastings Milledge (Was - OF)
SP	Carlos Villanueva (Mil - SP,RP)
SP	Tim Lincecum (SF - SP)
RP	Brian Fuentes (LAA -RP)
RP	Matt Capps (Pit - RP)
P	Adam Wainwright (StL - SP)
P	Dan Wheeler (TB - RP)
P	Brandon Morrow (Sea - SP,RP)
BN	Cliff Lee (Cle - SP)
BN	Jake Peavy (SD - SP)
BN	Chris Pérez (StL - RP)
DL	Joey Devine (Oak - RP)
DL	Justin Duchscherer (Oak - SP)

It's nice to be able to tuck Devine and Duscherer in my DL slots in case they come back healthy. I drafted Morrow as a starter and was actually bummed when he was named the Seattle closer, as I wouldn't have taken him as high (never pay for closers). Davis, Butler, Gordon and Ludwick are all young guys with big potential for break-out years, but they could also bust (as some would say Gordon has done each of the last two years).

Blair Unleashed

In case you didn't hear, Pitt's DeJuan Blair made himself eligible for the NBA draft. College underclassmen can do that (and participate in all pre-draft scouting and tryout activities to assess their prospects) and still return to school so long as they don't hire an attorney or business manager. Blair could have announced and waited until June before burning his bridges, but he did it right away.

I think, as Steve's Dokish report indicated the other day, that Blair just did not want to go back to class. Why else cut off your options by signing a business agent? It's not like he's going to suffer massive tooth decay before June (emphasis added):

"I did everything an individual can do," Blair said. "I had a heck of an individual year just like we had a heck of a team year. I got All-American. I got Big East player of the year. I was first-team everything.

"When you have a year like that, then you don't need to come back. You could, but you could always get paid for what you want to do. This smile will really be worth a million dollars. That will be cool."

He's obviously brighter and more talented (although shorter) than Chris Taft, but why set yourself up for a fall:

"I'm guaranteed being a first-round pick," Blair said. "I'm going to work hard to get to where I want to be. I control my destination."

Just how Blair came to that determination raised an eyebrow or two, including those of some Pitt officials who were present at his news conference. Blair said he based his decision not on the feedback he received from Panthers coach Jamie Dixon, who has close contacts with general managers and scouts, but by his own investigation on the Internet.

"I'm an Internet freak," Blair said. "I go on all the draft boards. No one has me going in the second round. That's almost a guarantee to me."

I'm sure we all like to control our own "destination", but some of us understand that a GPS can give you guidance. You have to wonder whom he's listening to.

And, by the way, DeJuan, you didn't accomplish everything you could accomplish. It wasn't his fault that Pitt lost to Villanova and the team doesn't shape up nearly as well next year even if he did come back, but now he will never be able to put NCAA Champion after his name.

Ebert on O'Reilly

I thought people might enjoy this.  Roger Ebert is actually quite sharp when not talking about films (his opinions on movies are another conversation):

Thoughts on Bill O'Reilly and Squeaky the Chicago Mouse

By Roger Ebert / April 7, 2009

To: Bill O'Reilly
From: Roger Ebert

Dear Bill: Thanks for including the Chicago Sun-Times on your exclusive list of newspapers on your "Hall of Shame." To be in an O'Reilly Hall of Fame would be a cruel blow to any newspaper. It would place us in the favor of a man who turns red and starts screaming when anyone disagrees with him. My grade-school teacher, wise Sister Nathan, would have called in your parents and recommended counseling with Father Hogben.

Yes, the Sun-Times is liberal, having recently endorsed our first Democrat for President since LBJ. We were founded by Marshall Field one week before Pearl Harbor to provide a liberal voice in Chicago to counter the Tribune, which opposed an American war against Hitler. I'm sure you would have sided with the Trib at the time.

I understand you believe one of the Sun-Times misdemeanors was dropping your syndicated column. My editor informs me that "very few" readers complained about the disappearance of your column, adding, "many more complained aboutNancy." I know I did. That was the famous Ernie Bushmiller comic strip in which Sluggo explained that "wow" was "mom" spelled upside-down.

Your column ran in our paper while it was owned by the right-wing polemicists Conrad Black (Baron Black of Coldharbour) and David Radler. We dropped it to save a little money after they looted the paper of millions. Now you call for an advertising boycott. It is unusual to observe a journalist cheering for a newspaper to fail. At present the Sun-Times has no bank debt, but labors under the weight of millions of dollars in tax penalties incurred by Lord Black, who is serving an eight-year stretch for mail fraud and obstruction of justice. We also had to pay for his legal expenses.

There is a major difference between Conrad Black and you: Lord Black is a much better writer and thinker, and authored a respected biography about Roosevelt, who we were founded to defend. That newspapers continue to run your column is a mystery to me, since it is composed of knee-jerk frothings and ravings. If I were an editor searching for a conservative, I wouldn't choose a mad dog. My recommendation: The admirable Charles Krauthammer.

Bill, I am concerned that you have been losing touch with reality recently. Did you really say you are more powerful than any politician?

That reminds me of the famous story about Squeaky the Chicago Mouse. It seems that Squeaky was floating on his back along the Chicago River one day. Approaching the Michigan Avenue lift bridge, he called out: Raise the bridge! I have an erection!

Sammy A

I never would have figured myself a fan of something called "Rye Ale," but it was surprisingly fantastic.

Sam Adams test brewery, genius.

A Sign of Things to Come in the Neighborhood?

Maybe it's finally time for me to get a pup. Just one vote away now.

The Bed The GOP Is Making for Itself

A crisp analysis from TNR: 

They're All Arlen Specter Now

A propos of my earlier post on the Times poll and the deep unpopularity of the Republican party, I was trying to think of a framework that captured the no-enemies-on-the-right dynamic that seems to be pushing the GOP further and further into the political wilderness. And while the metaphor is far from exact, I think there's some level on which the leaders of the GOP--not only in elected office, but in the media as well--are behaving like candidates in a contested primary all the time.

Take the House. John Boehner knows that he's exceedingly unlikely to become Speaker in the foreseeble future, and that if the oppotunity somehow arises, it will be due to events beyond his control--an economic collapse, a terrorist attack, etc. On a fundamental level, he's not competing with Nancy Pelosi, but with Eric Cantor and Mike Pence and any other party rivals eager to displace him. As in a contested primary, the dynamic generally pushes away from the center, but here particularly so, because a) the moderate wing of the House GOP has basically ceased to exist; and b) none of these guys is likely to be in a position to influence Democratic legislation in any substantial way any time soon. Everyone tries to outflank everyone else to the right--zero votes on any Obama-supported bill! a hyperconservative budget with no numbers! a hyperconservative budget with made-up numbers!--because there's no obvious, non-heretical way to establish yourself as a player otherwise. Denied the opportunity to govern (by their own intransigence as much as by the size of the Democratic majority), they have nothing to do but campaign 24/7.

The Senate is somewhat different of course, but not entirely different. How much higher is Jim DeMint's profile since getting nearly the entire party to endorse his "stimulus" vision of trillions of dollars of upper-bracket tax cuts? Does Mitch McConnell worry more about a leadership challenge from the left or from the right?

If anything, the competition among conservative media stars--a few of whom wield more influence than the parties' titular leaders--is probably worse. Sean Hannity isn't worried that Alan Colmes is somehow going to come back and take his job away. He's worried that Glenn Beck will--and with good reason. Again, there's no percentage here in being reasonable: It's not like any of these commentators has aspirations of becoming an anchor at, say, ABC News. They have their own conservatives-only playing field, and the way to run up the score--i.e., the ratings--is to be more hysterically partisan (in Beck's case, literally) than the next guy. A run-of-the-mill right-wing blowhard like Bill O'Reilly can barely keep his name in the news in a conservative media environment like this one.

Eventually an opportunity will come along for the GOP to retake the reins of political power, and some figures within the party will rediscover the virtues of (at least relative) moderation. But for now, Republican leaders are behaving much like primary opponents with no general election in sight, competing with one another to amass as much of the party's eroding turf--House leadership positions, Fox News airtime--as they can.

--Christopher Orr

MLB.tv

When I lived in LA, we often watched baseball through the MLB.com online video service. Back then (2002 - 2004), the online service was pretty rudimentary (did not use H.265 or DiVx, crashed a lot, slow to load, etc.), but the idea was ahead of its time. Living in LA, this was the only option, other than the full DirecTV package, to watch our favorite east coast teams play. That, combined with the uncontrollable Fantasy Baseball influence, meant we were watching a lot of baseball.

Now, back east, I don't rely on the service as much, but holy crap, has it undergone an upgrade:

I realize that Web 2.0 and new video codecs have only recently made this possible, but a number of services have yet to really exploit all of the feature optionality. CBS had a great setup for this year's Tourney and now it's clear MLB is right on its heels.