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.