Dual loyalties?

"There are Sox fans (like myself), and there are Cub fans (for no apparent reason). A Sox fan hates the Cubs. A real Cub fan (and there are some of these around) hates the Sox but not as vehemently as the Sox fan hates the Cubs. The `bandwagon' Cub fan (and there are lots of these) doesn't really care about the Sox (or doesn't even know they exist)."

I really don't care about the Sox and have nothing against their fans; I'm too busy hating the Cardinals and their a-hole fans to have much hate left for the South Siders.

Conservative journo suggests righties get into the news biz

(from Romenesko)
Conservative Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnist Patrick McIlheran writes: "The blogosphere and National Review are dandy, but ultimately they repackage news, not
originate it. If conservatives want news they can believe, they must
involve themselves in the daily reporting, photographing, editing,
headlining and producing of news as eagerly as do liberals. Honestly, it's
not a hard field to get into. It's fun, and you'll find there are other
conservatives, too (as well as a lot of reasonably friendly liberals)."

Yeah, he's right that it's fun, and not usually hard to get into (depending on your circumstances) but he skipped over the fact that you have to be willing to make less money than a new teacher does.

Make end-of-life decisions for yourself, while you can

If any good comes of this Schiavo mess, perhaps it will be that more people make their wishes known to more of their loved ones.


An end to it all
The issues raised by the Terri Schiavo case linger and are as complicated as life itself
Make decision for yourself--now

By Hesham A. Hassaballa
a Chicago doctor and freelance writer
Published March 27, 2005

There are countless Terri Schiavos across the nation, and the same difficult issues are being grappled with every single day.

I have witnessed many of these heart-wrenching situations as a pulmonary/critical care physician, and it has profoundly affected my thinking about end-of-life issues.

As a physician in the 21st Century, I have witnessed medical technology advance to such a degree that diseases that once killed can now be cured with little effort or at least treated successfully.

HIV is one. When I was a young lad in medical school, I would rarely see a patient with HIV over 30, and frequently they came into the hospital deathly ill. Now, however, I am routinely consulted on patients with HIV well into their 50s who have more "routine" medical illnesses.

Yet for all the advancement in medical technology, I have also seen a person be stricken with a disease that simply does not respond to treatment. Sometimes, in fact, the treatments administered can do much more harm than good. Mind you, this is not malpractice--it's just reality.

The most difficult cases for me, however, are the patients who, while surviving the disease's initial onslaught, are left with permanent organ damage, the most serious of which is the brain and nervous system.

Frequently, they are left neither fully alive nor fully dead.

This is where the difficult questions arise: Do we continue to "do everything," or do we "let nature take its course"?

The answers are not easy.

Continuing to "do everything" may come at a high price and with pain when subjecting the patient to complications of medical procedures and side effects of medications. Allowing "nature to take its course," on the other hand, can be an equally heart-wrenching decision, with feelings of guilt and remorse for relatives who perceive that they have "given up" on their loved one.

Yet these very difficult questions must be answered by every single one of us--here and now--when we are of sound mind, if not body. I cannot tell you how horrible a situation it is when a doctor approaches frightened and terrified family members--watching their loved one be in extremis--and ask them, "Should we do everything?"

Quite often, the family says, "do everything, doctor."

Yet that either may not be the most medically appropriate choice, such as in a patient with a terminal condition, or may not be what the patient truly wanted for himself or herself.

I have made my decision already: If there is no hope for my meaningful recovery, then I do not want my life sustained; please, let me die in peace and dignity and return to my Creator.

But that is not a decision I should be making for my patients. Rather, it is a decision for every free-willed human being and--most important--one that should be clearly delineated to our doctors and loved ones.

When I bring up end-of-life issues with my patients, they frequently fidget uncomfortably. It is such an important issue to discuss, however, that a brief moment of uncomfortable silence in a doctor's office is well worth it.

Whatever the decision, it has to be made, and it should be made between oneself, one's god, and one's family.

Governors mansions, state legislatures, houses of Congress and Oval Offices should never have to get involved.


Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune

Sports reporters screw up Dusty coverage

This is interesting on many levels. The coverage issue is intriguing; why doesn't anyone want to ask Dusty about racism? He's been prefectly willing to share his feelings on race before.

The second interesting issue: is Chicago so racist that a black manager can't make it? Chicago is pretty racist. There is no disputing that. But I've never known criticisms of Dusty to be unwarranted or seemingly racist in any way.

Why are Americans fat?

The answers are many; some complex, some simple.

Have you been shopping for china or stoneware recently? I have. The trend is toward HUGE plates. Salad plates are the size of what I'd consider a dinner plate, and what passes for a dinner plate these days is the size of a serving platter. Bowls are deep, cavernous pits. Check out your local Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrell, etc., when you have a chance. These huge dinning pieces have the insidious effect of making you want to fill them up. It's the little things that are making people so big.

Yesterday I was tooling around the touristy part of San Francisco on my bike, from Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 to the Golden Gate Bridge visitors' center. I saw a fair number of tourists on rented bikes, but I also noticed a new trend: people are renting these little miniature roadster thingies called "Go-Cars." You can also rent a Segway and get around town on that. Just another example of laziness and the trend away from exercise as recreation.

Preserving wild space is good for the economy!

This is a fascinating article from Outside Magazine (which contains consistently great writing). Basically, economists are finding that preserving wild spaces for recreation and air and water quality makes more economic sense than drilling, logging and mining in most cases.

James Watt quote made up?

Thanks to Peter for pointing this out. I blogged about it last month, but the link appears to be gone! Hmmm...

"I said I had made a mistake in quoting him without checking with him," Moyers told E&P today. "I should have done my homework."

How does this kind of stuff happen? When did reporters get so careless? As a reporter, I always double-checked stuff to the point of paranoia. Why do some of these people think it's ok to play fast and loose with the truth? I just don't get it.

Problems with the iPod

One of my primary problems is that it seems like maybe iTunes is lame, at least when used in a Windows environment. But there are others that just seem like idiocy on Apple's part:

One of the default settings when you install the iPod software is for it to pull every song you have on iTunes onto the iPod! Since I had already dumped all my MP3s (about 18 gigs worth) into iTunes it took some random selection that would occupy the 6 gigs on my new iPod mini and started downloading it. It took me quite a while to figure out how to stop this, because there's no paper manual, and the CD was pretty much inaccessible because of the intense downloading procedure.

Next, there's the physical iPod itself, especially the glorius "clickwheel," which is made out by many to be God's gift to consumer electronics. Well, I found it to be totally unintuitive, and I'm not exactly a novice when it comes to pulling gadgets out of the box and messing with them until I figure them out, without looking at the directions. I have figured it out, but I just don't understand the hype.

Finally, I'm still having a problem with it that's greatly affecting my enjoyment of the thing and it's usability: I can't figure out how to use the "random" function within a playlist, only within the entire list of songs that are on the iPod. My friend, Linda, is also having this problem, according to her fiance. If anyone knows how to do this, and can explain it to me, I would be very grateful!

Sprouts and the iPod

First, I went to this place called Erik's Deli Cafe. I went there specifically to get this one kind of sandwich, which has pastrami and cheese heated in a pita. First, they were out of pastrami. Lame, but no biggie, substitute ham and roast beef. I ask for "no sprouts." When the guy hands my order to the sandwich-making people, I ask again, "Did you get the no sprouts?" He says yeah. What do I get on my sandwich? Sprouts. You have to be retarded to actually want to eat sprouts. First, they look like sperm. Second, they harbor disease. Third, they offer no nutritional or taste value. As a result of this incident, I am never going to Erik's Deli Cafe ever again. In fact, I am going to endeavor to never order a sandwich from some place that puts sprouts on sandwiches ever again. Which is one reason I like Le Boulanger so much (even though I think the name is silly, so I just call it BOO-lang-er). Oh, and if you needed another reason not to go to Erik's, their bread bowls (which they claim are sourdough, but I'm skeptical) are atrocious compared to Boulanger's.

The other annoying thing that happened to me today was that I got my iPod Mini. This was far and away the most disappointing, aggravating consumer electronics experience I have ever had. More details in a future post...

Most clueless high school principal ever

Here's someone who is supposed to be helping kids learn and thrive in one of the most difficult times in their lives, and she doesn't want one of them encouraging her peers not to have sex. Wow.

Good riddance

When he left that Oct. 3 game, one or more of Sosa's teammates destroyed his boom box. Asked about the incident yesterday, Sosa smiled and said, "When the man is not in the house, the chickens are jumping around."

poll results

Free polls from Go2poll.com

Maybe idiot smokers will think twice before tossing butts

A man barely escaped serious injury Thursday after a lit cigarette he tried to toss out the window while driving across the Bay Bridge blew back in and ignited the vehicle, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Bumper sticker of the day

BUSH CHENEY 1984

It's a big, big day

Last night, I became an aunt! (Madelline Elizabeth Miller, 8 pounds, length and pictures to come...)

Today, pitchers and catchers reported to Arizona!

And this weekend, I'll be babysitting two Scottish Terrier puppies and hosting my mother-in-law at our home. It should be interesting.

Microsoft: Almost as evil as Walmart

THE NOSOFTWARE Patents site is reporting that Bill Gates told the Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen that 800 jobs would go if the country opposed the European Union's proposed directive on software patents.

It quotes a report in Danish newspaper Børsen, which alleges that Gates told Rasmussen and two other Danish ministers last November that 800 jobs at Navision would go unless the EU passed the directive.

The ginger group also alleges today that the CEO of Philips put pressure on the Dutch government to support the proposed directive.

WalMart closes store rather than tolerate union

Once again, WalMart has shown its disdain for the people it employs.

Charles and Camilla

This is the kind of thing I find interesting in spite of myself. An odd, real-life soap opera.

Restore Hetch Hetchy

As a staunch environmentalist, ardent lover of Yosemite National Park and life-long supporter of lost causes (i.e., the Cubs), this is an issue that is important to me.

Here is a reasoned, thoughtful take on the subject (I've copied and pasted the whole story, since the link requires registration):

Tom Philp: Hetch Hetchy feasibility grows - so does resistance

By Tom Philp -- Sacramento Bee Associate Editor
Published Sunday, February 6, 2005

Suddenly, notions of restoring Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy Valley and restructuring the San Francisco Bay Area's water supply don't seem so far-fetched anymore.

"This thing has serious political legs," said Susan Leal, the new general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. A transcript of a Jan. 20 meeting of Bay Area water leaders reflected her comments and her obvious vexation.


The old idea that has sparked a new look is whether Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park could be restored to its natural state. The valley's reservoir supplying the Bay Area's water would have to be drained for that to happen.

The state Department of Water Resources is assessing new proposals that examine storing the same water supply elsewhere. Environmental Defense, which spent months crafting a detailed technical explanation of how to take better advantage of the rest of the Bay Area's considerable water storage facilities, is winning new allies. On the political left inside the California Legislature, there are supporters such as the Assembly's Lois Wolk of Davis. On the Republican side, Assemblyman Tim Leslie of Tahoe City is among those intrigued by a package deal that restores Hetch Hetchy while building new reservoirs.

As the reality of a new Hetch Hetchy debate is dawning on San Francisco, the city seems to be struggling to find its political moorings. The reaction publicly evolved in phases. At first, Leal's agency cooperated fully with Environmental Defense as the environmental group produced its Hetch Hetchy restoration study. Upon the study's release in September, Leal officially "welcomed" its findings. But now that those findings are being taken seriously, the mood seems to be shifting. Talk of restoring the Hetch Hetchy Valley doesn't seem so welcome after all.

San Francisco's water commission, Leal said at the Jan. 20 meeting, "will be considering a very strong, detailed resolution taking a position against draining Hetch Hetchy." She has urged other governmental bodies to follow suit. And a business group, the Bay Area Council, is recruiting opponents as well.

I wrote a series of editorials for The Bee calling for a second look at Hetch Hetchy. We were intrigued by the possibility of marrying two agendas - the Bay Area's pressing need to upgrade and expand its water system and the public's insatiable appetite for visiting beautiful Yosemite valleys. So now the San Francisco Public Utilties Commission doesn't like me very much. "You have a fairly zealous opinion about this," agency spokesman Tony Winnicker said the other day.

Without going into all the technical details, the basic proposal is to eventually drain the reservoir by punching a hole through the dam, once a bigger, better water storage system is in place outside the national park. Replace the lost storage - and then some - with a reservoir that San Francisco already was contemplating for the Bay Area: Calaveras. Build another pipe (just as San Francisco proposes) to the Sierra so that 100 million gallons more Sierra water can move per day into reservoirs when the water's available.

That's enough new storage and new conveyance in the Hetch Hetchy system to raise some legitimate questions about the future of that medium-sized reservoir in the national park. Technically speaking, this idea passes the back-of-the-napkin test. (Hetch Hetchy's is just one of nine reservoirs in the Bay Area's system, by the way.) If this weren't technically intriguing, some much smarter folks inside the California Resources Agency and its Department of Water Resources wouldn't be examing it.

This very initial study phase is normally a safe harbor for both proponents and opponents of any given idea, but in this case, even the prospect of a serious study seems to be rocking San Francisco's boat.

What does history reveal about San Francisco's apparent fear of a study? For clues, look to historian Robert Righter of Southern Methodist University and his soon-to-be-released book, "The Battle for Hetch Hetchy, America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism."

As far as restoring Hetch Hetchy goes, "I don't ever think there was a fair look," Righter said. "All of the looks were done by engineers or technocrats who looked only at money and engineering. They were pretty myopic in terms of what we might be wanting in the year 2000. Nothing about recreational needs."

John Muir lost the fight to save Hetch Hetchy in 1913, when Congress approved the dam in the national park. He failed to make a convincing technical case for how San Francisco could get the same supply in other ways. The new generation of Hetch supporters haven't made that same mistake. San Francisco surely has history on its side. But this time around, the allies of Hetch Hetchy have done their homework. That's why this has legs.

Then: "The leaders of the Bay Area and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) are highly sympathetic to the well-meaning goals of those who advocate restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley, and we are extremely interested in these studies and their findings."

SFPUC General Manager Susan Leal,
Sept. 12, 2004

Now: "This thing has serious political legs. ... The commission...will be considering a very strong, detailed resolution taking a position against draining Hetch Hetchy. I think it's about time that..your city councils, other organizations, take that same position."

Leal, to Bay Area water leaders,
Jan. 20., 2005

Then: "For a period of three years from the date of this agreement, the city and county of San Francisco and the SFPUC agree to remain neutral on Restore Hetch Hetchy's efforts to seek state, federal or private funding for the preparation of feasibility studies for restoring Hetch Hetchy."

City Attorney Dennis J. Herrera,
Nov. 18, 2003

Now: "We are writing you to urge you to join with us in rejecting any proposal to drain the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite Valley."

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Oct. 4, 2004

About the writer:

Reach Tom Philp at (916) 321-1046 or tphilp@sacbee.com.

Bud Selig is a numbskull

This much we knew.

Selig repeated his oft-stated position that San Jose is not an option for a team because baseball has granted the Giants ``territorial rights'' to Santa Clara County, and the Giants have said they won't allow another team to undermine their support among South Bay fans and Silicon Valley businesses.

``I have been very clear, not only here but everywhere. Territorial rights are established and that's what they are. We don't have anarchy in baseball. We don't change things. We don't move things around,'' Selig said.

Where, exactly, did the crack-smoking mental midgets at MLB come up with this "territorial rights" BS? According to maps.google.com, Shea Stadium is 9.5 miles from Yankee Stadium. Wrigley Field is 15 miles from Comiskey Park. Pac Bell Park is 16 miles from the Oakland Coliseum. Pac Bell Park is 47 miles from downtown San Jose!!! A) The whole concept of "territorial rights" is beyond ridiculous and thoroughly socialist, and b) the idea that the Bay Area will support the A's less in San Jose than Oakland is perposterous, especially given the mileage figures I cited.