Oh, I'm old

I was born in 1966 -- I'll wait while you do the math. Spent my first 12 years in and around Philadelphia before we moved to Atlanta. When I was about 16, we went back up to Philly for a visit. My cousin Keith (about 18 months younger) and I were shooting hoops in his driveway one evening when our fathers came out and challenged us to a game. We accepted, thinking, "we'll wipe up the court with these old men".

We lost 10-1. The 1 came because, one time, I put up a shot as soon as we got the ball. After the game, we remembered that our dads (who are brothers) incessantly played basketball together growing up. They could've been blind-folded and still would have each known where the other was.

Keith lives in Kansas City now. We were chatting online the other night, and were reminiscing about that game, when it occured to me:

I am the age now that my dad (one of the "old men") was then!

Time for my Geritol.

Maybe he can only start on the road

John Smoltz got his first win tonight. At first, I was excited that the Braves finally gave him some run support -- over his last 3 starts, he had a 2.11 ERA and had an 0-2 record to show for it.

But then I realized that the Braves' batters may not have known which pitcher they were doing this for -- 3 of Atlanta's 4 runs came before Smoltz even took the mound.

Maybe for John, others' ignorance is bliss.

(very) smart bombs

From a story in WND:

A TV commercial warning Americans that Iran intends to launch a nuclear terror attack in the U.S. has been rejected by several stations....

Apparently the ad was deemed "too politically partisan and controversial."

Partisan? Wow -- how do they make a bomb that only kills Republicans?

A bit of sanity

Looks like Mae Magouirk is going to be OK, despite her grand-daughter's efforts to kill her. Her brother's and nephew's lawyer finally managed to inject some sanity into the case, and Magouirk is no longer being treated like an annoying bug.

Interesting note in the article:

Troup County Probate Judge Donald Boyd, who has had charge of the case since April 1, voluntarily recused himself ... [giving] no reason for his decision.

WND may not be able to say it, but I can. Rats always leave a sinking ship.

Pass the buck -- I've got a few million more

First, let me say that I don't like the unbalanced schedule in Major League Baseball. I don't like the idea that a team in another division comes to town only once (if that much), especially if I want to see them and they come in April or May when the pollen count in Atlanta is around 87 billion.

Having said that....

Every time there's a fight or the start of a fight or anything else bad between two teams in the same division, the players, the commentators, and everyone else in sports blames the unbalanced schedule. "Oh, these guys have to play each other so much; there's going to be bad blood between them."

Say that again, and stop before the word "each".

PLAY!!!!

(insert over-used, but true, stuff about millions of dollars and little boys' game here)

All around the world, there are people who work with the same people hundreds of times a year -- not 19. And some of the folks out there in the workplace are bigger jerks than even Roger Clemens. But when's the last time you heard about a brawl breaking out at IBM?

Can you say "slippery slope", boys and girls?

It's Terri Schiavo, all over again, except with a few differences that make it even worse. The victim of the yanked feeding tube this time is Mae Magouirk of Lagrange, GA. The one who had it yanked is her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy.

• The whole Schiavo battle revolved around hearsay of what Michael claims that Terri said to him.
• Mae Magouirk has a living will that states that she wanted to live.

• Michael Schiavo was Terri's next-of-kin, from a legal standpoint. Technically, his medical decisions came first (even if they were stupid and self-serving).
  
• At least 3 people are legally closer to next-of-kin to Magourik than Gaddy is -- all of whom want her to live and are willing to take full responsibility for her.
  

• Michael and some of Terri's doctors claimed that Terri was in a vegetative state.
• Mae was neither terminally ill, comatose nor in a "vegetative state" when admitted to the hospice that is "over-seeing" her murder. These were the only conditions under which Magouirk did not want to be kept alive.
  

The one other issue that these two cases have in common: once again, our wonderful "legal" system is thumbing its nose at the law, and siding with Gaddy.

If I haven't made you nauseous enough, here's the full story.

Today's moral: Don't pay your bills

A man in Maryland was arrested for paying his bill with (gasp) money. Full story here.

Funny, in a ludicrous, this-is-how-my-tax-dollars-are-spent kind of way.

However, the closing comment is disturbing.

Commenting on the incident, Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey told the Sun: "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."

Apparently, Mr Toohey sees as equivalent the passing of (allegedly) counterfeit money and the murder of 3000 people.