Our society is truly sick.

As if it weren't hard enough to be a mom, we get these outrageous, schizophrenic messages: If you don't or can't breastfeed, you're a bad mom, but if you're lucky enough to be able to nurse your child, it's gross and we don't want to see it.

They named Dana after him, you know...

Last night I was watching the Dodger game (actually mostly listening to it so I could hear Vin Scully) and this thought occurred to me: "Oh my god. Someday, Vin Scully is going to pass away. Then what? What will life be like in a world without Vin Scully?" I think when that happens the Dodgers should just not be on TV anymore. Or they should, but there should be no commentary. Just silence. Or maybe just jazz music.

He's 78 years old, btw.

Why the White Sox win

I think it's the names. Tonight they have guys in the lineup named Pierzinski, Mackowiak and Podsednik. If the Cubs still had Grudzielanek, they'd be in this thing.

(Yes, I know I've misspelled most, if not all, of these names.)

Operation Rescue on Ann Coulter

"I just wish for a pastor to preach with the unabashed candor of Coulter. It is too bad that Coulter wears a dress, or I’d toss her name in the hat for the consideration of the Pastoral Search Committee."

40,683

That's how many sun-dummed bums watched the team with the third worst record in majors, the team that has scored the least runs of any team in all of baseball lose in a game in the Chicago heat and humidity yesterday.

One less car

Hey, don't forget about my other cool blog!

Movies and TV

Don't see Cars. It is a total waste of time.

Rescue Me is the best show on television. That's right. Sopranos, 24, Lost. Nope. Rescue Me.

If Al Gore were president

Great video! If it weren't so amusing I'd be crying...

So I finally read The DaVinci Code

It was an enjoyable read. And interesting. I guess now I understand why all the Christians are so agitated about it. But maybe it's just because they're worried that it's true.

Um, the what?!?

That's right, the Los Altos Gay Pride Parade. I missed the parade itself, but there was some sort of little gathering afterwards that I saw toward the end of my bike ride.

I like the Queerios.

Also, I'm pretty sure Jesus hated tolerance.

Knife attack in Berlin

If this had happened in the US, the kid would have had a gun and killed lots and lots of people.

Toad has quite a point

An estimated 2 million babies die within their first 24 hours each year worldwide and the United States has the second worst newborn mortality rate in the developed world, according to a new report.

"American babies are three times more likely to die in their first month as children born in Japan, and newborn mortality is 2.5 times higher in the United States than in Finland, Iceland or Norway, Save the Children researchers found."

Japan offers free health care services for all pregnant women and babies while only the rich and insured get adequate health care in the United States.

This poses a paradox for conservative types who claim they are pro-life yet don't seem to care about life after it has been born...

True words from the NYT

"Lost" is the sudoku of network television, a brainteaser that puzzles but does not enlighten.

Just got back from Hellinois (to paraphrase Credence)

This photo is not an example of the extreme gentrification that has obfuscated much of what was once the north side of Chicago with Pottery Barns and Gymborees. It is, instead, one of the few things that is more-or-less the same as it was 10 years ago: my old apartment. Changed is the retail establishment on floor one: a nail salon (as opposed to a nail spa) instead of a plumbing fixture store. But the 100-year-old building still looks like it houses folks who don't work at fancy firms downtown or dot-coms in Bucktown. Back when I lived there it was $480 for a spacious, if a bit decrepit, two-bedroom. The condos going up around the corner start at $300k. Ah, real estate.

Biking Redwood City

Check out my new blog. Arthur and I are trying to leave the car in the garage for a whole month!

Weird-o letters to the editor

Check out the WalMart one. Even if you like WalMart, you have to admit that it's pretty weird that they were ringing up her purcahses while -- oh, it just has to be read to be believed.

(The high school parking one is weird, too)

*Nemesis hat-tip*

The least of all evils

Interesting Chron story on Toyota

A good point from Romenesko

Real journalism is difficult and bloggers want no part of it

Philadelphia Inquirer

Jonathan V. Last says bloggers are always saying how easy journalism is,
yet very few of them have ever really practiced it. "Real journalism --
the practice of adding to the store of public knowledge by reporting
news -- is a difficult, thankless, and often unpleasant task. Bloggers
want no part of it. Everyone wants E.J. Dionne's job; no one wants to be
Michael Dobbs. ...Taken as a whole, the Old Media performs an enormous and
valuable function that the New Media is neither able, nor inclined, to
emulate."

Good news!

I'm looking forward to the $5 mark.

Bay Area journalism heads further down the toilet

The Bay Area newspaper landscape could undergo a seismic change if Denver's MediaNews Group purchases from Sacramento's McClatchy Co. the San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times and two other papers in a $1 billion deal that a published report said might happen this week.

MediaNews, the country's seventh-largest newspaper publisher, owns the Oakland Tribune, Marin Independent Journal and several other local papers. It would immediately become the biggest newspaper operation in the Bay Area if it were to acquire the Mercury News and Contra Costa Times.

...

A MediaNews purchase could face such obstacles as antitrust scrutiny, labor opposition and shareholder inquiries about whether McClatchy got the best price. But experts said a deal would probably overcome those hurdles.

...

Selling the papers to MediaNews would help McClatchy raise more than $2 billion from the sale of the 12 papers. And it would provide MediaNews and its CEO, William Dean Singleton, with a more powerful presence throughout the Bay Area.

Singleton has built a newspaper empire through a strategy of "clustering" -- owning groups of nearby newspapers that can share resources like printing presses and staff, and can offer a larger circulation reach for advertisers.