Sunday morning on my mind (with Poetry Index)

BALTIMORE, Maryland July 28, 2013- If the season ended today the Orioles would travel to Boston for the one-game Wild Card Playoff, with the Winner advancing to American League Divisional Series against an opponent to be named.  Of course, if the season ended today, neither the Yankees or Rangers would be in the Playoffs at all...There are dozens of things, dozens, that obama could do to improve the job picture in these United States.  And there are dozens and dozens of things obama could do to improve the economy that would improve the job picture.  And obama not only refuses to do any of those things, he blasts and humiliates - or tries to - those who want him to do those many things.  Instead, he dresses up tired and useless marxist ideas as if any of them would help these massive problems at all, ever. If you study the history of the communist bloc during the cold war you will see all of obama's economic ideas played out over and over, and you will see that they did not work.  You will also see that the governments who employed them, at the expense of tried and true open market ideas, all saw their governments implode in favor of capitalism and open markets...Driving through the northern reaches of central Maryland and then south central Pennsylvania yesterday I saw nothing but rolling fields full of tall and lush corn stalks, huge hardwoods creating a canopy of green wherever the fields gave way to the forest, and some of the most beautiful American scenery anywhere...Those poor souls condemned to my acquaintance know that I have a fervent love for poetry. Once in the proverbial blue moon I scratch a poem of sorts onto paper but mostly I read and acknowledge great poems. One enigmatic poet - some, at this point scream, "aren't they all?" - was Rupert Brooke. But don't be fooled by all of the gossip-column type stuff you read about Brooke, his best poems take a back seat to no one.  His problem is that in his short (actually way too short) career he also penned some God-awful numbers that continue in print and drag his reputation down.  Born in England (the Town of Rugby in Warwickshire) in 1887.  He died very young, at the age of 27, aboard a French Hospital Ship anchored in a bay on the Greek Island of Skyros in the Aegean Sea.  He was serving as a Lieutenant in the British Mediterranean Expeditionary Force bound for fighting at Gallipoli in World War I.  His death there was ironic on many counts: much of his fame arose from a series of five War Sonnets he wrote not long before his death that, intended or not, fueled an anti-war fever in England at the time.  Wikepedia's write-up on Brooke gives an excellent consolidation of the Brooke myth, career, and his life and death.  The poem which he wrote and titled "Dust," is one of the best Romantic Poems I have ever come across.  And the strange thing is, most people familiar with it have no idea it is a Romantic Poem.  That is because the late Danny Kirwan, formerly of the .../legendary Rock Group Fleetwood Mac, purloined the first several verses of "Dust" and made it into a song which is on the "Bare Trees" album that was released well before the group took on Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.  The song leads listeners to believe that they are hearing a commentary on death.  When you read the poem, you realize that Brooke was describing the most powerful Romantic Love he could conjure up. 

Dust
by Ruppert Brooke


When the white flame in us is gone,
    And we that lost the world’s delight,
Stiffen in darkness, left alone
    To crumble in our separate night

When your swift hair is quiet in death,

And through the lips corruption thrust

Has stilled the labour of my breath—

   When we are dust, when we are dust!---

Not dead, not undesirous yet,

Still sentient, still unsatisfied,

We'll ride the air, and shine, and flit,

Around the places where we died,

And dance as dust before the sun,

And light of foot, and unconfined,

Hurry from road to road, and run

About the errands of the wind.

And every mote, on earth or air,

Will speed and gleam, down later days,

And like a secret pilgrim fare

By eager and invisible ways,

Nor ever rest, nor ever lie,

Till, beyond thinking, out of view,

One mote of all the dust that's I

Shall meet one atom that was you.

Then in some garden hushed from wind,

Warm in a sunset's afterglow,

The lovers in the flowers will find

A sweet and strange unquiet grow

Upon the peace; and, past desiring,

So high a beauty in the air,

And such a light, and such a quiring,

And such a radiant ecstasy there,

They'll know not if it's fire, or dew,

Or out of earth, or in the height,

Singing, or flame, or scent, or hue,

Or two that pass, in light, to light,

Out of the garden, higher, higher. . . .

But in that instant they shall learn

The shattering ecstasy of our fire,

And the weak passionless hearts will burn

And faint in that amazing glow,

Until the darkness close above;

And they will know---poor fools, they'll know!---

One moment, what it is to love.  

If you are by some foolish chance wondering if there is a poetry index to be had for Credible and Incisive, the answer is: not until now. 

Index to Poems in Credible and Incisive

January 7, 2013, Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity, by John Milton
April 6, 2013, poem no. 1, by John William Trotz
July 28, 2013, Dust, by Rupert Brooke

  

Racism around the world

BALTIMORE, Maryland July 21, 2013-  {a work in progress} In Poland, they call it zbrodnia katyńska, mord katyński. If you wanted to compare it to something that you might be able to visualize, albeit in some macabre nightmare, think of a beheading.  But instead of a single victim, think of a country being beheaded.  That is what happened to the Polish People in zbrodnia katyńska, mord katyńsk.  Although the perpetrators of this atrocity tried to frame another evil-doer, time, forensics and more than a little bit of common sense helped find the guilty parties. What the Soviet Union did in April and May of 1940 was behead the nation that stands next to it.  Josef Stalin himself signed off on the atrocity.  The Soviets rounded up some 22,000 of the best and brightest of Poland's people: it's elite military officers, it's elite professors and engineers.  The very best that Poland had.  And they killed them in cold blood and buried their bodies in the Katyn Forest.  They tried to blame the Nazis.  They claimed - when the bodies started showing up - that the Nazi's did it when they were in full retreat and with the Soviets in hot pursuit.  There was a controversy for a while.  Then the post-Soviet Russian governments - to their credit - started opening up the sealed files and there was the Politburo itself signing off on the entire sordid and sick affair.  Even Josef Stalin himself signed the papers, not that he had the courage to carry out the evil.  Well, come to think of it, maybe Lucifer' personal emissary could have participated without batting an eye; look at the millions of other victims he has to his "credit."

Whither the AL East?

BALTIMORE, Maryland July 20, 2013- The Orioles tagged along on the spectacular pitching of Wei-Yin Chen and beat Texas in the heat at Arlington, 3-1.  Nick Markakis knocked in a run and robbed the Rangers' Adrian Beltre of a home run with a memorable leaping grab at the right field wall to lead the Orioles.  Boston won, beating the Yankees, and Tampa Bay whacked Toronto, leaving the AL East Race like this: (1) Red Sox 59-39; (2) Tampa Bay 56-41; -2.5; (3) Orioles 54-43; -4.5; (4) Yankees 51-45; -7; (5) Toronto 45-50; -12.5.

The Wild Card is even more muddled.  Remember in looking at these numbers that the top two teams get a wild card berth and play each other in a one-game play-off.  The team with the better record gets to play in their stadium.  (1) Tampa Bay 56-41; +1.5; (2) Texas 54-42; (3) Orioles 54-43 -.5; (4) Cleveland 51-45; -3; (4 tie) Yankees 51-45; -3; (6) Angels 45-49;  -8; (7) Toronto 45-50; -8.5; (8) Kansas City 44-49;  -8.5; Seattle 44-52; -12.5.  If you are thinking that if the Orioles, with Miguel Gonzalez on the mound, can beat Texas tonight, they would be in the playoffs were the season to end this way, you would be correct.

Sad and Depresing

BALTIMORE, Maryland July 15, 2013- There are the expected demonstrations.  There are the calls for the justice department to bring federal civil rights charges against George Zimmerman. It is reactionary for the people who don't have the weight of governing on them.  For anyone in power to consider such charges rationally would be loathsome.  obama and holder already infected the public discussion with racial hatred and bias, and they did so purposely.  And their comments, coming long before the trial and during the time when charges had not been brought, poisoned the public discourse while adding exactly nothing but more racist venom.  I still laugh when recalling the democrat who said that Holder was an outstanding Attorney General.  No, he did.  One democrat actually said that Holder was outstanding.  I was embarrassed for him.  

Did you know that this lead prosecuter, Angela Corey, filed an affidavit that led to the indictments of Zimmerman.  And this affidavit contained so many falsehoods and base exagerations that a leading liberal legal authority, Alan Dershowitz of Harvard, called for her disbarment.

I was troubled by the incident. A lot. I believed then and believe now that young Martin should not be dead. More accurately, I do not think there is a reason for him to be dead. Nothing that occurred, nothing he did, should have put him anywhere near a life-threatening situation.  Nothing.  He was walking down the street, maybe in a suspicious way.  And Zimmerman - on the look out in connection with his status as a neighborhood watch volunteer - saw him.  He did the proper thing: he called the police.  The 911 dispatcher took the info and had patrols responding.  The dispatcher asked for more information and Zimmerman said, only then, that the person he'd been watching was apparently black.  His unsure response was because Martin was wearing the ubiquitous hoody. At some point Zimmerman lost sight of Martin and apparently said, loud enough for the 911 dispatcher to hear him, that he would follow him and try to see what he was doing.  The 911 dispatcher told him "you don't have to do that."  Had Zimmerman heeded the caution and got back in his car, none of this would've happened.  But Zimmerman went on the prowl.  Shortly thereafter, the two came together and the rest is history.  

But even when they came together, no one had to die.  A struggle ensued and some evidence suggests that Martin gained the upper hand and was on top of Zimmerman and whacking him in the head.  But no one was seriously injured in the fracas.  Martin's only reported marks were on his knuckles, an indication his hands were being used as fists to pummel Zimmerman.  On the other hand, Zimmerman had two minor abrasions on the back of his head, a broken nose and some facial contusions.  

One witness testified that when he saw the two males going at each other, he believes Martin was on top and Zimmerman on the bottom.  He also believed that Martin was punching Zimmerman or, possibly, slamming Zimmerman's head into the pavement.  The last suggestion was provocative, for sure, but was probably not nearly as bad as it sounds.  Zimmerman was not likely to be raising his head very high after Martin pushed it into the pavement.  There was also testimony from several witnesses that one of the combatants was screaming.  The respective mothers said that the screaming person was their son.  The scream was high-pitched and indicative of someone petrified at their current situation.  I believe that Martin, after getting some licks in, backed off, stepped back.  Most people, in that situation, would've jumped to their feet and run like hell.  But Zimmerman had a gun and he used it.  Life is neither fair nor understanding.  Why was Martin there?  I've heard that the spot where he was killed was but 100 feet from the home where he was staying.  Was he walking toward that house?  Was the course he was taking through the row homes where the incident occurred a true short cut for him?  You know what?  It doesn't really matter.  He had done nothing for which he should have died. Even if he was there to steal, and even if he was laying in wait for Zimmerman, who he knew was following him, and even if he pummeled Zimmerman because he could, he didn't deserve to die.  But he did.  Anytime someone so young is cut down in the prime of his life it is an unspeakable tragedy.

Then there is the awful, shameful, egregious aftermath of the shooting, an episode that culminated in the trial that ended Saturday.  Initially, the people legally charged with examining the incident and the evidence culled from it concluded that they did not have near enough evidence that a crime had been  committed.  First degree murder requires the fact finder to identify evidence that the killer had premeditation.  This means that he thought about what he was about to do - plotted his crime - and did what he could to carry out his plans.  Even the most vengeful public official never went to that extent.  The other levels of murder and manslaughter require different degrees of malicious intent.  In other words, the death occurred because the killer was angry or incensed at the victim and acted on that anger or spirit.  Go back to the scenario I laid out above.  Let's say it happened that way.  Let's say that Martin, angry that the "creepy...cracker" (as the State's Witness, Rachel Jeantel, a 19-year-old friend or girlfriend of Martin's, quoted Martin in describing Zimmerman), hid behind a bush and when Zimmerman came by, he jumped out and confronted him, leading to the lethal event.  Let's say that the confrontation led quickly to Martin gaining the advantage.  It is not hard to think that Martin pinned Zimmerman to the ground and whacked him several times, breaking his nose and leaving minor bruises on Zimmerman's head.  Martin then decided he'd taught Zimmerman a lesson and pulled off of him.  If Zimmerman shoots him at this moment, has he committed a criminal act? 

No sane person would say, upon reflection, that in such a scenario Martin deserved to die.  I don't think many people, with time to think, would say that Martin had it coming.  Zimmerman had little or no time to think.  He knew, well, that Martin would have little difficulty in dishing out more punishment in such a situation.  Had Zimmerman ever before, in his lifetime, received a beating like that?  It's nice to sound all optimistic and noble, when reflecting, to say that Zimmerman's number one priority should've been to make sure no one died.  

This is an awful tragedy.  Zimmerman was negligent, and reactionary.  He over-reacted, even if Martin hid, jumped him and whacked him around real good.

Into this tragic event jumps who?  You name him, he jumped into the fray.  The regulars could hardly wait to touch down in Florida and start whipping up the hatred.  Al Sharpton does so very much to increase racial understanding.  But, of course, the far left media treated everything Al said as insightful, deep and meaningful. This is why the far left media is always the second and third and fourth place media.  Nobody else can tolerate such divisive mongering.  The whole block of media coverage got off on such a high-minded beginning.  Some racist-leftist at NBC got a hold of the 911 tapes and doctored them to make Zimmerman sound like a racists.  How?  Zimmerman described what he saw to the dispatcher, saying the suspect was walking close to the buildng, looking all around and not going anywhere in particular.  The dispatcher cut in, asking if the suspect was white, hispanic or black.  For a second or so, Zimmerman put the phone away and got himself a bit closer to Martin.  He returned to say, "I think he's black." But the racist-leftist at NBC edited out the dispatcher's question and pulled everything else a lot tighter.  The result was an audio that had Zimmerman saying.  "He's acting really suspicious. He's black."  NBC sort of kind of apologized.  They had the audacity to blame the atrocious incident on the editor's desire to save time and make the clip shorter.  I know I believe that.  The fine folk over at the New York Times tried to do NBC one up when - in trying desperately to make this an explosive racial incident that really mattered, labeled Zimmerman a "white hispanic."  The color of your skin defines your race.  You are not hispanic.  You are not African American.  Now, you are a white hispanic.  This keeps alive the white killing black scenario that drives the story. With this racist thinking, they can try everyday to gin up the idea that white's will always hate blacks and do everything in their power to oppress them.  Always and forever.  Every white man is like that.  Just ask the racists at the Times and at NBC.

But forget Al for a minute.  The absolute worst comments were made by none other than obama.  Any thought that the criticism he received after his mindless comments following the arrest of the Harvard professor somehow chastened him were shot out the window when he started in on this event.  Will anyone ever forget the deep and meaningful "if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon?"  

It added so much enlightenment to the situation.  I know I felt a lot better.  

Zimmerman going forward

BALTIMORE, Maryland July 14, 2013- Whether you agreed or disagreed with the jury's decision in the Martin case in Florida, the timing of the jury's verdict, coming as it did in the middle of the night, was a Godsend.  There is little appetite for a riot at such hours.  And, hence, none developed.  As for the fate of Mr. Zimmerman, going forward, there are few Americans who would care to be in his shoes, and he will have his actions to mull over for an eternity.  

For myself, it seemed clear that no one should have died in that incident. I'd be willing to wager that most people have that same opinion.  

Buffoons as "self-appointed leaders" as Buffoons

BALTIMORE, Maryland July 10, 2013-  The so-called leaders - "self-appointed" is the only descriptive word that unites this group - told us, day in and day out, that George Bush was the absolute worst.  The leaders told us that he lied about Iraq and the intelligence we had (in making those charges, they hoped we were not aware that they had access to the same intelligence as the President).  The leaders told us that our soldiers shouldn't be in Iraq and that once there they were despoiling a great nation by breaking into citizen's homes in the middle of the night and doing terrible things to their women. Actually, it was John Kerry who told us that, even though he never moved to cut off funding or otherwise limit our involvement.  He is one of the leaders, he said.  L'il Dick Durbin, another leader, compared our military to Pol Pot, the Cambodian despot who slaughtered millions.  The leaders kept saying the economy was on the verge of recession.  Really, they said that, back when unemployment was about five percent and the GNP was large enough that you didn't need a microscope to see it.  Day in and day out they regaled us with their tales of doom.  And everything was Bush's fault. Later, when the backwater marxist obama slipped into  power, he declined to change course on any of the Bush policies he and the other leaders so adamantly criticized.  That was when unemployment was about five percent, and the economy was growing and growing.  When Bush was president, black unemployment dropped, and dropped, and then dropped again.  The leaders blasted Bush because black unemployment was higher than unemployment as a whole.  Now with obama, we are told to celebrate when the unemployment rate drops under eight, when it really didn't because so many Americans have stopped even looking for work.  We are told to celebrate even though black unemployment is rising and rising and rising at a rate that is faster than unemployment as a whole.  One day we'll take some time and examine who made people like Kerry and Durbin leaders.  It's my party and I  forget the election or other procedure that made these buffoons "leaders" of my party.  The fact is, they are not leaders and they really are not even good people.  They have not - even once - stood up to this administration or spoke out for the people being pillaged by the oafish bureaucracy obama pushes upon us.  They forget, or, more likely, totally reject, the fact that what they actually are, under the law, are representatives of the people they were elected by.  The important word there is "represent."  

It's Monday

BALTIMORE, Maryland July 8, 2013-  {work in progress} A radio commentator today, (When I was the absolute most liberal person on Earth, I listened to Rush Limbaugh.  It's how I started grinding my teeth.  I still listen.  The grinding has gone by the wayside) basking in the glow of obama's major concession on the obamashaft (i.e. Affordable Care), said, straight up, that the fewer the number of people who "enroll" in obamashaft the easier it will be to repeal...How crazy is the American League? Well, consider this: Were the season to end today, the Yankees would be out of the playoff picture.  Had Mariano Rivera not blown a save yesterday against the Orioles - Adam Jones hit a long home run in the ninth right after Nick Markakis singled, as the Orioles stormed from behind to salvage the final game of a three game set - the Yankees would be in.  Right now, the Rangers would get the first wild card berth and the right to play at home in that one-game playoff.  The second team would be decided by a playoff game between the Orioles and the Rays.  They both own 49-40 records. The Yankees (48-40), are one-half behind Baltimore and Tampa, while the Indians (46-42) trail by two and one-half, the Angels and Blue Jays (both at 43-45) by five and one-half, and the Royals (41-44) by six games.  If you don't think the wild card has ginned up interest in some cities, consider this: the Blue Jays trail Boston by a whopping ten games.  But they are only five and one-half behind the wild car leaders. But there is a down-side to the wild card.  With more teams in the playoff fight, there are fewer teams willing to deal veteran ballplayers before the July 31 trading deadline...If you read the headlines, especially the local headlines, you should know the big downside to living in Baltimore.  The drug trade is rampant in the city, and the number of shootings rises concomitantly.  The last weekend in June saw an astounding 20 shootings. (Baltimore is lucky compared to Chicago, where the Fourth of July Holiday saw 72 people shot, 12 of whom died).  There are trade-offs, ones I am willing to make.  First and foremost, I get to raise my family in an integrated neighborhood.  Getting along with everybody is easy because we do it everyday without thinking about it.  Another huge benefit to living here is the cultural offerings that a city can make.  This City's fathers were generous to a T; names like Johns Hopkins, Enoch Pratt, William and Henry Walters, the Cone sisters, and that is only the start.  Because of the artistic vision and generosity of the two Walters and the two Cones, among others, the City has two major Art Galleries - the Walters Art Gallery and the Baltimore Museum of Art - both with strong Renaissance and European art collections.  God knows the number of times I have wondered through those galleries.  In the Baltimore Museum of Art stands the legendary painting by the Flemish Master Anthony Van Dyck, "Rinaldo and Armida".  The very large, lavish and rich work portrays a legendary scene from Torquato Tasso's epic poem, "Jerusalem Delivered," written in 1580.  Van Dyck's work was completed in 1624 and is set today in a sumptuous Circular Frame covered, lovingly, with the richest gold paint imaginable.  The museum's staff has noted that the frame is much newer than the painting, and was matched with the art work in either the 18th or 19th centuries.  Both galleries have other great works by antiquity's masters, and I will refer to them over and over again in this space.  Both are open to the public year round for no charge.  I believe they both are closed on Monday and Tuesday, but if you plan to go you should call ahead.  The BMA also has a life-size sculpture of Mary and the Christ-Child that was completed, it is believed, in France sometime between 1330-1350 AD.  The work was sculpted from a single block of limestone and was originally covered in beautiful paint, remnants of which can still be seen.  Unlike many works of art which are slightly newer and found in Italy, and depict the Christ-child with a very mature face, this evocation of Christ is age-appropriate. The artist is unknown, sadly, and the sculpture was removed from a church in the small French town of Gisy-les-Nobles.  The town is located in Upper Burgundy.  Three things about the work literally reached out and grabbed my attention.  First and foremost was the gaze and appearance of Mary.  Her beautiful face is soft and loving, and while her hold on her child is firm and motherly, the artist allows her gaze to be off in the distance, almost certainly lost in her thoughts.  An ever-curious Christ-Child, by comparison is drawn to something much closer. His look is alert, eager to learn. The second and third attention grabbers are the objects in the two figures' hands.  Christ has a moderately-sized bird in his left hand.  The bird's wings are extended, but there are no signs it is struggling.  Mary, has something in her free hand that is difficult to identify.  The artist left no clue and the museum staff offers no suggestion.  For my part, I think it is a rolled piece of paper.  What was going on in those years?  In Italy, the Renaissance is percolating.  But this is France.  And a small town in France, no less.  Who was this artist who could produce such a magnificent work and yet pass from history without further notice?  Indeed, is there another work by this artist?  Will we ever know?

Unforlorn

BALTIMORE, Maryland July 7, 2013- It was hot.  It was New York.  The Baltimore Orioles had lost four out of five on the road trip.  The damn Yankees were looking for a sweep and the Orioles were trying to stop their downbound train before it got them to fourth place.  It had all the makings of another bloody replay.  The Orioles couldn't buy a hit and every little thing looked all wrong. Hiroki Koroda came in with an ERA well under three and against the Orioles he looks like Cy Young.  The Birds have seen that ghost quite a few times on this road trip and it is getting really eerie.  The only run in the game was scored by the Yankees, on a sacrifice fly, and now it was the ninth inning in Yankee Stadium and Mariano Rivera walked like the conquering hero out of the Yankee bullpen, across the green outfield grass and onto his throne, er, ah, pitching mound.  He's a certain Hall-of-Famer, you see, and even in this, his last season (having already announced his retirement effective at season's end), he has blown just one save.  He has 28 saves, one shy of Jim Johnson, but Johnson has seven blown saves.  Johnson leads the league in both categories.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Predictably, Rivera got the first out fairly easily.  At least he made it look that way.  Manny Machado, one day past both his twenty-first birthday and his player-voted All Star berth, grounded meekly to second base.  Up stepped Nick Markakis.  Nick is a big problem for Rivera because he is one of the few players in all of baseball who actually does well against Rivera.  He came into Sunday batting .316 against the Yankee Hero.  Early in the at bat, Markakis launched a tremendous blast to right field.  It hugged the line for a while, then veered off foul.  Oriole fans are hanging their heads.  Not only was it foul, but it reminded almost all of them of the shaft they received in the final playoff game - for them - last season.  They were tied with New York, two games apiece and the Bronx Bombers were protecting a narrow two-run lead against the Orioles in the sixth inning of the fifth and deciding game.  Nate McClouth launched a drive down the same right field line that nicked off the foul pole for what in any other reality was a key home run, bringing resilient Baltimore to within a run of the Yankees.  Except that the knuckleheads in blue called it foul and, even afforded an opportunity to look at the replay, didn't change the call.  So a home run was a foul ball.  Nick Markakis' shot on Sunday was a few more feet foul but it did seem like a deja vu multiplied by about one hundred.  Markakis, however, is an indefatigable lad and he stepped back in and promptly lashed a solid single to center.  Down one, one on, one out. Up stepped Adam Jones.  And by gosh Adam Jones was swinging true and did he ever get into one of Mariano Rivera's pitches; it was long and it was deep and my oh my was it was hit oh so hard.  It was a two-run home run.

But before you get into that 'game, set, match' talk, remember this is Yankee Stadium and the Yankees still get to bat.  Not only that, but the Orioles closer, Jim Johnson, is having all kinds of trouble of late.  On Friday night, the Orioles were a run up going into the bottom of the ninth and Johnson came in and got lit up.  It is absolutely dispiriting, having your closer give away a game the rest of the team had hung onto for the previous eight innings.  Some thought Johnson might be in the process of losing his job.  Like it was noted above, he leads the league in blown saves, and a team in a penant race cannot afford that.  It just cannot.  But all Orioles fans who could stomach it looked out to the bullpen after Jones' homer and there was Johnson, warming up.  Hang on.

One of the reasons baseball is so wonderful, so thought provoking, so redemptive, is that teams play 162 games before the playoffs.  Even when you blow an important game - and Friday night was a very important game between two bitter division rivals - there is a tomorrow most of the time.  This was Jim Johnson's tomorrow and he came to the Yankee Stadium mound like a man possessed.  The sinker was diving and the fast ball, his most under-rated pitch, was on fire.  Two of them were clocked at 95 and 96 mph.  Lyle Overbay, up first, struck out swinging.  Luis Cruz, up second, struck out swinging. Next came Eduardo Nunez.  Johnson threw him two curve balls.  Huh?  Yes he did.  They were both balls. A murmur of hope in New York?  Is Johnson thinking too much?  On the third offering Nunez hit a meek and timid ground ball to Chris Davis.  He fielded it cleanly and underhanded a sure throw to Johnson covering first.  Now: game, set, match.  On the radio Joe Angel was ebullient.  "This was the most important win of the season," the melodious and sure voice exclaimed.  Yes it was, it absolutely was. Jim Johnson now has 30 saves, which is the best in all of baseball.  Yet he will watch the All Star game at home with his family.

Woebegotten

BALTIMORE, Maryland July 6, 2013- Let us hope that the Orioles have hit rock bottom.  Five games into a critical pre-All Star Game road trip, the Orioles are stuck on one win.  After losing last night in just about the worst way imaginable - they took a narrow lead early and hung on for dear life until the bottom of the ninth.  There, in Yankee Stadium, usually dependable close Jim Johnson blew up.  Two Yankee runs turned a game-long lead into a terrible defeat.  And then today they came and grabbed another two-run lead on Chris Davis' 33rd home run.  They got another couple of runs but couldn't hold on, again.  This time, by the ninth, they were behind, 5-4. They stayed behind.  And all of this after losing two our of three to the last place White Sox.  In Chicago, in the rubber game, Tommy Hunter surrendered ninth inning walk-off homer to Adam Dunn.  Buck Showalter doesn't sound concerned.  But the Orioles now trail the Red Sox by six full games.  They are in third place.  And what's worse, their advantage over fourth place Tampa is exactly one-half game. And then there is this: if the season ended today, the Orioles would not be in the playoffs.  Tomorrow they will have a chance to lose the entire series to the Yanks.  

Updates and Quick Hits

BALTIMORE, Maryland, July 3, 2913- Through gritted teeth, obama and his team of functionaries and other leftists declared that there would be a one year "delay" in implementing obamashaft (a more accurate and descriptive name for the Affordable Care Act a/k/a obamacare) for businesses with fifty or more employees.  That's the good news.  But with each passing day the bad news about this terrible, dysfunctional marxist health care thing is really really bad.  The cost of implementing it and the cost of it once "running" have tripled, at least.  Many radio hosts are delighting in playing recordings of obama swearing that citizen-health costs would decline once obamashaft was implemented, that citizens would be able to keep their own insurance and their own doctor and so on.  Not one word was even marginally true.  The really sick thing is that both obama and the deadbeat media knew all of this one year ago or even earlier.  But now, after the tart's been re-elected, and the debilitating effects of his "plans" plunge the nation toward economic catastrophe, the media finally starts letting those pesky facts slip out of the bag; we stand and watch as the disgusting news dribbles out daily.  The decent folk who believe in the country and what it stands for: equal rights for all, equal opportunity for all, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all, now have to survive four more years of the wrecking ball marxist and friends and "fundamental change" of a great nation with firm footing, or so we thought.  And the media wonders why they are held in such low regard. obama has lied so often and so completely that anyone paying attention has to assume he is lying everytime he speaks.  I do...Last week Credible and Incisive reported that the Orioles were facing a major decision about Ryan Flaherty.  The second-year infielder had decisively broken out of a long slump with the kind of hitting that prompted the Birds to take him in the Rule 5 Draft over the off-season before the 2012 campaign.  But now, just as he was showing the kind of hitter he could be - he had already proved that he was a Gold Glove-quality fielder - Brian Roberts, the sensational second baseman for the Orioles for many years, was returning from what had been three seasons of injuries.  On Saturday night, which was the night before Roberts was activated, Flaherty hit another long home run. On Sunday, with Roberts activated, Flaherty was again at second base while Roberts was the DH.  On Tuesday in Chicago, Roberts started at second base while Flaherty sat on the bench.  Roberts had a hit and an RBI on Sunday and a home run on Tuesday (although he did strike out with Nate McClouth at second base to end the game.  The Orioles lost, 5-2.)  Today, the Orioles removed Danny Valencia from the active roster, but not the 40-man roster, to make room for Scott Feldman, the pitcher who was acquired from the Cubs on Tuesday in exchange for Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop.  The Birds also received Catcher Jake Clevenger - a Baltimore native who attended Mt. St. Joseph's High School - but assigned him to Norfolk.  He was placed on the 40-man roster, making him a likely call-up in September.  The Orioles have only three catchers on the 40-man roster.

Bolton admits presidential interest and travel plans to Iowa and New Hampshire

BALTIMORE, Maryland, July 3, 2013- John Bolton, the former United States' ambassador to the United Nations, confirmed today that he will soon travel to Iowa and New Hampshire, and when an interviewer asked him about Presidential aspirations, he did not deny them.  Instead, the foreign policy expert said that one purpose of his travels is to keep the nation focused on foreign policy issues facing the United States.  The interview on Baltimore's WCBM provided Bolton with an opportunity to explain his grave concerns with policy choices made by obama and his functionaries.  

       Bolton voiced particular concern about the Middle East and the large-scale demonstrations in Egypt, and the intelligence disaster that has been couched in the travels of former State Department analyst Edward  Snowden.  China has scrubbed Snowden's computer clean, Bolton said, and Vladimir Putin and Russia have tried to do the same.  

       Snowden is currently in Russia, and is seeking asylum there.  Bolton blasted obama for failing to be front and center in the Snowden debacle.  It was obama's responsibility to personally appeal to China and Russia to arrest and extradite Snowden, Bolton said.