September 19th

In addition to Aidan turning four …

Bill Medley is 67 today. Medley is the Righteous Brother with the deep voice. It was he who sang the opening verse in the great, great classic “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.” It was the late Bobby Hatfield, the tenor, who generally took the lead on Righteous Brother songs.

Hall of Fame ballplayers Duke Snider and Joe Morgan were born on this date — Snider is 81, Morgan 64. When I think of Morgan I think of an interview during a World Series in the early 1970s. Howard Cossell asked Morgan, “What does it feel like to know you are the best person in the world at what you do?”

Unfortunately for Joe — and us — he’s not the best person in the world at what he does now, which is comment during baseball broadcasts.

Roger Angell, the wonderful writer known foremost for his essays on baseball in The New Yorker — at which he has often been the best in the world at what he did — is 87 today.

It’s the birthday of Roger Angell, … born in New York City (1920), who went to baseball games with his father as a kid and got to see Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig hit back-to-back home runs. He grew up reading the sports sections of four newspapers. His mother, Katherine White, was an editor at The New Yorker. Angell took a job as fiction editor there in 1956, and in 1962 he began writing about baseball. Angell said, “[Baseball is] perfect for a writer, so full of specifics. … One trap in writing about baseball is excessive nostalgia. I think it may be because we all came to the game through our fathers and at a time when we were children and everything in the world seemed good. But the quality of most experience is not confined to when we were young. Tomorrow I could see the best game I’ll ever see.” His most recent book is a collection of personal essays, Let Me Finish, which came out last year (2006).

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

Adam West, TV’s Batman, is 77. David McCallum, TV’s Illya Kuryakin, is 74. Randolph Mantooth of Emergency is 62.

Trisha Yearwood is 43.

The Mary Tyler Show debuted on this date 37 years ago.

210 years ago today (1777) Continental soldiers under General Horatio Gates defeated the British at Saratoga, New York. A second battle was fought at Saratoga on October 17, 1777. American victory in the battles turned the war in the colonists favor and helped persuade the French to recognize American independence and provide military assistance.

Autumn

It felt like fall for real here in Albuquerque last evening at the end of a spectacularly beautiful day.

If you’d like to synchronize your calendars, the equinox is Sunday the 23rd at 9:51 Universal Time. That’s the fall equinox in the northern hemisphere; spring in the southern.

Subtract 4 hours for Eastern Daylight Time, 5 for Central, 6 for Mountain and 7 for Pacific.

Or, in other words, fall begins at 3:51 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time on Sunday.

Best line of the day, so far

Rummy’s back in the news, giving interviews about a planned memoir and foundation designed to encourage “reasoned and civil debate” about global challenges and to spur more young people to go into government.

It’s rich. Maybe more young people would go into government if they didn’t have to work for devious bullies like Rummy who make huge life-and-death mistakes and then don’t apologize.

Maureen Dowd

And New Mexico has three!

The 22 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and two to watch) according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Members of the Senate:
Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM)
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK)

Members of House:
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA)
Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-CA)
Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL)
Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA)
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA)
Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-LA)
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Rep. Gary G. Miller (R-CA)
Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV)
Rep. Timothy F. Murphy (R-PA)
Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA)
Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM)
Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ)
Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY)
Rep. David Scott (D-GA)
Rep. Don Young (R-AK)
Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL)
Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-NM)

Dishonorable Mention:
Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID)
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)

Here’s the goods on each.

The surge

NewMexiKen realizes you don’t come here for news about Iraq, but I thought these two excerpts from George Packer in last week’s New Yorker provided a succinct status report.

But the inadequacy of the surge is already clear, if one honestly assesses the daily lives of Iraqis. Though the streets of Baghdad are marginally less lethal than they were during 2006, sixty thousand Iraqis a month continue to leave their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration, joining the two million who have become refugees and the two million others displaced inside Iraq. The militias, which have become less conspicuous as they wait out the surge, are nevertheless growing in strength, as they extend their control over neighborhoods like Ahmed’s. In the backstreets, the local markets, the university classrooms, and other realms beyond the reach of American observers or American troops, there is no rule of law, only the rule of the gun. The lives of most Iraqis are dominated by a complex array of militias and criminal gangs that are ruthlessly competing with one another, and whose motives for killing are more often economic or personal than religious or ideological.

The natural life of the surge will end in 2008, when the brigades sent earlier this year will finish their fifteen-month tours and return home. After that, it will become virtually impossible to maintain current troop levels—at least, for an Administration that has shown no willingness to disturb the lives of large numbers of Americans in order to wage the war. Young officers are leaving the Army at alarming rates, and, if the deployments of troops who have already served two or three tours are extended from fifteen to eighteen months, the Pentagon fears that the ensuing attrition might wreck the Army for a generation. Activating the National Guard or the reserves for longer periods could cause the bottom to fall out of public support for the war. Beyond these measures, there are simply no more troops available.

I’m still reading it, but it seems to me that Packer’s whole report — A Reporter at Large: Planning for Defeat — might be worth your time.

Survey Picks 41 Top Hospitals in U.S.

Thirty-three hospitals and eight children’s hospitals were named top facilities by a health care business group Tuesday.

The facilities, mostly in large cities, got top scores for boosting patient safety standards and for treating high-risk diseases according to scientific evidence. Hospitals also got points if they used electronic prescribing programs.

Hospitals in Oakland, Calif., Pittsburgh, Boston, and Seattle were among those singled out by the Leapfrog Group, a group started by corporations and other large employers worried about health care costs. Children’s hospitals in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Detroit were also among top scorers.

The results are based on a survey of 1,285 hospitals.

— WebMD

Follow the link and scroll down a bit to see the list.

Top 10 Best Law Schools for Hispanics

  1. New Mexico (27%; 22%)
  2. Miami (12%; 8%)
  3. Texas (17%; 4%)
  4. USC (16%; 6%)
  5. American (14%; 6%)
  6. Florida State (8%; 7%)
  7. Arizona State (15%; 7%)
  8. Stanford (11%; 7%)
  9. Arizona (12%; 8%)
  10. Florida International (28%; 17%)

First number is percentage of Hispanic students; second Hispanic faculty.

Source: HispanicBusiness.com via Discourse.net.

NewMexiKen finds HispanicBusiness.com’s headline (which is the post title here) interesting. Shouldn’t the top 10 “best” law schools for Hispanics parallel the top 10 best law schools period?

The Evil Empire

Comcast has revealed some details about its mysterious bandwidth limitations. Previously the company had only said that it would shut down customers who went over what the company considered average use. But given that the company doesn’t seem to have a definition of average use, it’s difficult to know whether you’re in danger of being shutdown.

— Compiler – Wired Blogs

It appears to be about 90GB a month.

Why college?

A provocative essay by Anthony Kronman, Sterling Professor of Law at Yale University, on the meaning of college — and finding the meaning to life. Well-worth reading, but hard to summarize, but here’s two key thoughts:

… But despite their differences, all rest on a set of common assumptions, which together define a shared conception of humane education.

The first is that there is more than one good answer to the question of what living is for. A second is that the number of such answers is limited, making it possible to study them in an organized way. A third is that the answers are irreconcilably different, necessitating a choice among them. A fourth is that the best way to explore these answers is to study the great works of philosophy, literature, and art in which they are presented with lasting beauty and strength. And a fifth is that their study should introduce students to the great conversation in which these works are engaged – Augustine warily admiring Plato, Hobbes reworking Aristotle, Paine condemning Burke, Eliot recalling Dante, recalling Virgil, recalling Homer – and help students find their own authentic voice as participants in the conversation.

Though critics have attacked “great books” programs as a kind of indoctrination into a European-dominated intellectual canon, the students in my Directed Studies class respond in the opposite way. They become rambunctiously independent. For they learn that the greatest minds in the world are on their side – or aren’t, and feel entitled to quarrel with them. A college freshman who has read Descartes, and who crafts her own reasons to reject his invitation to doubt, is on her way to an independence of spirit that is surely one of the conditions to living a meaningful life.

Thanks much to dangerousmeta! for the link.

Best line of the day, so far

“It’s amazing how many Republicans call me for support. And then they go, ‘You’re a Republican right?’ And you go, ‘Well I’m actually a lifetime Democrat.'”

Toby Keith, who also says:

“Some sorority chick called my daughter a — said she shouldn’t be in the sorority cause she’s just white trash with money,” Keith said. “And she laughed. And my wife was all upset. But I thought it was a great album title.”

Thanks to Functional Ambivalent for the link.

Land of the Free — Well, Except Celebrities

(CBS) Americans are divided as to whether Hollywood celebrities ought to get involved in politics, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds.

Forty-nine percent of those surveyed say celebrities should stay out of politics, while 46 percent think they should get involved if they choose.

Democrats and liberals are much more welcoming of celebrity involvement in politics than Republicans and conservatives. Sixty-nine percent of Republicans said celebrities should stay out of politics, compared to just 33 percent of Democrats.

CBS News

NewMexiKen realizes that “should stay out” isn’t the same as “must stay out,” and who knows how the polling question was worded, but don’t celebrities have the same rights — obligations — as other citizens?

Fred Thompson Fears Presidential Run Will Typecast Him As Politician

WASHINGTON, DC—Veteran character actor and Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson expressed worries to reporters Tuesday that a successful White House bid could spell “total career death.”
…

Recent polls have placed Thompson among the GOP frontrunners, with many voters citing the value of his experience as U.S. president in the 2005 docudrama Last Best Chance.

The Onion – America’s Finest News Source

10 things never to say to a car salesman

“I’m ready to buy …”
“I can afford this much … ”
“Yes, I have a trade-in …”
“I’m only buying the …”
“I’m not sure … which model …”
“Oh, I’ve wanted one …”
“I’ll take whatever …”
“What’s the lowest price …”
“Sure, I’ll look at the numbers …”
“I think you can do a lot better …”

Forbes has the follow-up on each.

September 18th

Robert Blake is 74 today.

James Gandolfini is 46.

Frankie Avalon is 67. (Annette will be 65 next month.)

Coach Rick Pitino is 55.

Baseball hall-of-famer Ryne Sandberg is 48.

Dazzling defensive flair and a tremendous knack for power enabled Ryne Sandberg to join the list of greats at second base. As the National League’s Most Valuable Player in 1984, Sandberg led the Chicago Cubs to their first postseason appearance since 1945. His amazing range and strong, accurate throwing arm, led to nine consecutive Gold Glove Awards at the keystone position, and helped him pace NL second basemen in assists seven times, and in fielding average and total chances four times each. With the bat, Sandberg launched 282 career home runs, and in 1990 he become the first second baseman since Rogers Hornsby in 1922 to hit 40 homers in a single-season.

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Jada Pinkett Smith is 36.

Lance Armstrong is 36 today, too.

C.J. Sanders, the kid who played the young Ray (Charles) Robinson, is 11.

Greta Garbo was born on September 18, 1905. This is from her New York Times obituary in 1990:

The finest element in a Garbo film was Garbo. She invariably played a disillusioned woman of the world who falls hopelessly and giddily in love. Tragedy is often imminent, and her tarnished-lady roles usually required her to die or otherwise give up her lover. No one could suffer like Garbo.

Mysterious and aloof, she appealed to both men and women, and she exerted a major influence on women’s fashions, hair styles and makeup. On screen and off, she was a remote figure of loveliness.

Garbo’s career spanned only 19 years. In 1941, at the age of 36, she made the last of her 27 movies, a slight comedy called ”Two Faced Woman.” She went into what was to be temporary retirement, but she never returned to the screen.

Actor Jack Warden, who died last year, was born on this date in 1920. Warden was nominated twice for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar — for Shampoo and Heaven Can Wait. NewMexiKen liked him best as juror # 7 in 12 Angry Men.

Eighty years ago today the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System went on the air with 16 stations. 27-year-old William S. Paley bought it a week later, dropped Phonograph from the name, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The first edition of The New York Times was published on September 18, 1851.

Something worth cheering about

The New York Times will stop charging for access to parts of its Web site, effective at midnight Tuesday night, reflecting a growing view in the industry that subscription fees cannot outweigh the potential ad revenue from increased traffic on a free site.
…

In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain.

The New York Times

Hey, Albuquerque Journal, get with the program.

The Deadliest Day in American History

In a comment, David reminds us today is the 145th anniversary of America’s bloodiest day. NewMexiKen has written about Antietam often:

The Deadliest Day in American History

Antietam National Battlefield (Maryland)

Long Tall Abe

Thenceforward, and forever free

The best single volume on Antietam is Stephen Sears’s Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam.

Sears wrote a good article on the battle in 1989: Antietam: The Terrible Price of Freedom.