Mets Last Gasp
As I write this, Carlos Delgado [with two mates on base] just lined deep to left closing out the 8th inning.
The Metropolitans trail the Fish by 2 big runs. Milwaukee has won, forcing the Mets to come back or sit and watch the playoffs, as the Brewers fill the role as the NL wild card entry. [big “Vivian sigh”]
Just a microcosm of 46 years of Mets fandom.
Once again, I’m too old to cry and it hurts too much to laugh.
Rooting For Torre, Not The Dodgers
Joe Torre could be my most favorite baseball person of all time. It took ten years, but by the end of his tenure as Yankee manager, I was almost hoping the Yankees would win in the in the American League, for his sake. Nomar, Lowe, Manny, and Kent are also amongst those I’m fond of as players. Trouble is, after 56 years of practice, I still hate the Dodgers. In this case, I adamantly refuse to “root for the laundry,” yet if these guys do well… 
Eve On Sarah [As It Were]
> best known for “The Vagina Monologues”, wrote the following about Sarah
> Palin:
>
> Drill, Drill, Drill
>
> I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a
> member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of
> drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular
> thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it’s their snowy whiteness or their
> bigness
> or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one
> in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so
> comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.
>
> I don’t like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life
> trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against
> them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah
> Palin
> choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this
> choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.
>
> But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to
> Feminism which for me is part of one story — connected to saving the
> earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options,
> opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.
>
> I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous
> choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates
> the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas
> that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the
> impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately,
> this
> is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the
> bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.
>
> Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor.
> In
> her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets
> better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting
> of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution
> and rise of cancers, are all part of God’s plan. She is fighting to
> take
> the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin’s
> view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are
> here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and
> plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself
> of the Iraqi war, “It was a task from God.”
>
> Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women
> who
> are raped and in cested and ripped open against their will should have a
> right to determine whether they have their rapist’s baby or not.
>
> She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I
> imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many
> babies that makes.
>
> Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she
> has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense
> with
> people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of
> ambiguity and difference.
>
> This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of
> the United States . She would govern one of the most diverse populations
> on the earth.
>
> Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle.
> She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds
> of wolves f rom the air.
>
> Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right.
> But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is
> declared in God’s name, when the rights of women are denied in his
> name,
> that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of
> everything America has ever tried to be.
>
> I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election
> in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not
> just of the U.S. , but of the planet. It will determine whether we
> create
> policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans.
> It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the
> world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and
> attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal
> burning o r invest our money in alternatives that will free us from
> dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on
> education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of
> killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant
> society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.
>
> If the Polar Bears don’t move you to go and do everything in your power
> to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after
> Palin spoke at the RNC, “Drill Drill Drill.” I think of teeth when I
> think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of
> domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless
> repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or
> dissent.
> I think of pain.
>
> Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor
> of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations
> and
> peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?
>
> Eve Ensler
> September 5, 2008
>
Obama On The Death Penalty…
Be Careful, Southerners
Once again it’s hurricane season in the south. One may ask [given that the administration hasn’t dealt with global warming and purposely didn’t fix the New Orleans levees], ” Now that the majority of culture in the only southern city with culture has already done floated away, what’s to worry about now?” Well, for one, my friends and relatives in Florida. Remember, Jews who grow up in New York must retire to “the land of heat and more heat, topped off by nagging old people and their parents kvetching about the humidity.” It’s the law. :-)
So my southern friends; Leave your sister be, stay dry, remain damp, and keep your chin up while floating in the murky part of the new community swimmin’ hole your loving GOP has provided.
You need not save your Confederate dollars. The south will most certainly not rise again.
My First Reaction To Ms. Palin
She’s anti “choice,” wants to drill in Alaska, bans books, and has four kids. In addition, her husband races dogs [many of whom die of the dubious thrill of this involuntarily participation.]
[Edit to add: Turns out she has five kids, one of whom is pregnant at age 17. Live and learn.]
There’s too much for me to dislike in one typing.
In the interest of journalistic integrity, I must say that she’s some what of a hottie. Not as hot as she thinks she is, but that’s not a crime against the nation. Given her politics, I’ll pass.
Come to think about it, as much as I like Hillary’s politics, pass on her as well.
Ralph Zig Tyko remains happily alone, but not lonely. :-)
Comfortably Zoned with Ralph Zig Tyko 