Security

I know everyone in the US feels like they're in danger following the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01, and everyone wants a bigger share of Federal money, but these recent Homeland Security grant changes are a joke.

This has got to upset anyone who feels like the Federal government wastes money, regardless of where you live or what you think about terrorism.

If you want to be safe, sounds like it's time to move to Louisville, Omaha or Charlotte.

Some highlights from the article (NY Times 5/31/06, by Eric Lipton):
The net effect was that the grant to New York City, which was $207.6 million last year, will drop to $124.5 million this year, while Washington will see its grant dollars drop a similar 40 percent, to $46.5 million this year.

Meanwhile, grants for cities like Louisville, Omaha and Charlotte, N.C., each jumped by about 40 percent, to about $8.5 million each. Newark and Jersey City, which received a combined grant, also saw a large increase, rising 44 percent to $34 million.

Overall, New York State will get $183.7 million, which is a 20 percent drop from last year. That means New York State's per capita share of grant funds, which totals $2.78 per person, will drop to an even lower level compared to some rural states, like Wyoming, which will get $14.83 per person this year.

Ms. Henke, who recently took over the office that distributed anti-terrorism grants, said the relative changes in the grant dollars are based on just the kind of detailed analysis of threat and vulnerability that officials in Washington have been calling for in criticizing past awards.

The competition for the grants this year kicked off in January when Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that in the fourth year of these awards, which were started after the 2001 attacks, the department would put much more emphasis on directing the money to the most likely possible terrorist targets.
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So NY and Washington get less Federal money after a revised system to allocate dollars based on threat analysis, vulnerability and more probable terrorist targets. Maybe someone should have double checked this algorithm!
Tags: Homeland Security, terrorism

Broken Rules

As far as I can tell, this story clearly breaks the first and second rules of Fight Club.

Tags: Fight Club

Bonds 715

Since Barry Bonds hit his 715th HR today, passing Babe Ruth, it led me to thinking about if he'll go after Hank Aaron's career record of 755 HR's. After all, in one or two years, he could easily reach that.

Bonds is in the last year of his contract. If he went to the AL next year, he could be a DH and not have to worry about playing in the field. I think a team like the Kansas City Royals, who won't be able to turn their misery around in one year, should seriously consider trying to sign Bonds. At the very least they should see if it's economically feasible to do so. A Bonds signing would bring an excitement to their team like they haven't had in years. Sure, they might not be winning, but the place would be packed full of people trying to see Barry reach what was thought to be unattainable. The team's media coverage and profile would be elevated as well. Considering all the revenue sharing money they get, I think this would be an excellent idea. Also, the media scrutiny is probably less intense in the heartland than it would be on the coasts as well.

Some might point to Wade Boggs getting his 3000th career hit with the Devil Rays as a reason this wouldn't work. I doubt that the Boggs milestone had such an impact on team popularity. But in this case, things are different. Boggs' milestone was purely personal. The HR record has a bigger significance for most people than that.

Tags: 715, Barry Bonds, baseball, home run, MLB, sports

Baseball Notes

I haven't been paying attention to enough baseball lately.

Can you believe Barry Bonds still hasn't passed Babe Ruth? He's really breaking down, huh?

Scott Proctor just entered the game for the Yankees. I think he's a pretty good pitcher, but the Yankees are just TRYING to wear him out. He has thrown the most pitches this season of any reliever. He's going to get Tom Gordon Syndrome, or at least a Tanyon Sturtze Irritation.

While on MLB's main page, I just found out that Jason Bay has 10 HR in his last 10 games (pretty cool), the Pirates played an 18 inning game last night.

Here's my last oddity that I wasn't aware of. The Twins turned a triple play, two weeks after being caught in one! Both are worth watching on MLB's site.

Oh, and the Tigers and White Sox look like pretty good clubs. Toronto's record is almost as good as the Yankees'. How about those Mets?

Looks like it'll be an exciting year for baseball. Is this a return to competitive balance? Can we attribute this to revenue sharing?

Tags: baseball, MLB, sports

Yankees Just Got Their Copy of Moneyball

Well, at least they just finished reading it. Check out the following players in their major and minor league systems (parentheses for years with Oakland):

Jason Giambi ('95-'01)
Terrence Long ('00-'03)
Johnny Damon ('01)
Carlos Pena ('02)
Erubiel Durazo ('03-'05)
Octavio Dotel ('04-'05)

Tags: A'sbaseball, Moneyball, New York Yankees, Yankees

NBA Notes

A few NBA Notes:

Nothing like the Chicago getting the #2 pick in the NBA draft by way of the Knicks to remind everyone of the horrible Eddy Curry trade. I was thinking about this, however, since most people are surprised the Knicks gave up a pick that was not lottery-protected. If the Knicks traded a lottery-protected pick, it probably would have been a pick for at least 2010! Of course, for me, the jaded Knicks fan, the draft lottery provides an opportunity to read a whole new set of entertaining "Fire Isiah" and "Brown vs. Thomas" stories in the tabloids.

If Larry Brown leaves the Knicks, and coaches elsewhere, he could be getting paid by three teams next year! That's got to be a first.

This year's NBA Playoffs sure seems like it's been interesting! Three series-deciding games over the last few days, and LeBron James took the Pistons to the maximum in his first playoff appearance. The Heat then upset the Pistons last night. Unforuntaely, I'm not watching. The west coast games are on too late, and when they go to single or double overtime (which they did quite often), it's just too late to stay up. The schedule of the games is also so widely spaced out. There were no games on Saturday! It's too hard to follow, I'll just read the news items and watch a few highlights tomorrow.

A nice interview with Jeff Van Gundy by Mike and the Mad Dog today.
Tags: basketball, Knicks, NBA, Playoffs, sports

Just Shut Up Awards

The ESPN Radio "Mike and Mike" show have some sort of contest called the "Just Shut Up Awards." They advertise this contest on the Pardon the Interruption podcast each day. I can't stand the Mike and Mike show, it's uninteresting and uninspired. I nominated them for the Just Shut Up Awards and suggest you do the same.
Tags: ESPN Radio, Just Shut Up Awards, Mike and Mike, sports

Click

The Adam Sandler movie, Click, sounds very similar to something I wrote two years ago.
Tags: Adam Sandler, click, movies, tivo

Face the Nation 5/21/06

Bob Schieffer made the following comments last Sunday on Face the Nation. I'm really starting to like this show (which I listen to on podcast). I particularly like the line at the end about the Capitol.

------------------------------------
The English Language Debate

WASHINGTON, May. 21, 2006

(CBS) Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News anchor and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

It's official! The Senate voted to make English the national language of the United States.

Do you feel a lot better knowing that? Or were you like me and thought English was our national language?

Sort of like we know the Washington Monument honors George Washington even though it doesn't have a sign on it that says Official Monument to George Washington. Even I figured that one out.

Of course new citizens should speak English but why would the Senate spend hours debating whether to make English our national language?

Let me break it to you gently: because it gives Senators something to do while they avoid addressing the real problems -- the war, health care, the ballooning deficit and immigration, for that matter.

Working on real problems that have to do with national security and the country's fiscal well-being take determination, political courage and the ability to compromise -- all of which have become the missing ingredients of modern politics.

So we'll hear more about silly issues between now and election day and come to think if it...

Maybe we should make the Washington Monument the national monument to our first president, otherwise people might think it honors the Washington Airport.

And if Senators designate Grants Tomb the official tomb of General Grant, maybe that old joke about who is buried there would go away.

And while they're at it, maybe senators could declare the U.S. Capitol to be the national monument to wasting time and avoiding responsibility.

Actually, I doubt any of us needs to be reminded of that.

Tags: Bob Schieffer, CBS, Face the Nation, politics, tv

Clintons, Bushes

The NY Times ran an article about the Clintons' personal life today, and it made me wonder, if Hillary became President in '08, would that be such a bad thing? After all, if we could elect George Bush's son, then why not Bill Clinton's wife?

Then I got to thinking... Wouldn't it be funny if Hillary won in '08 and '12? Then Jeb Bush, who's always been lurking in the Republican background won in '16 and '20? By then, Chelsea Clinton would be 40, and thus, eligible for the White House. There's probably a few Bush family members who could take over after her! It would be remarkable - Presidents Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton, Bush. That would, in a strange way, turn the Bush and Clinton families into sort of monarchies of sorts. Can we get someone working on making this ridiculous scenario happen??

Tags: Bush, Clinton, President

24 Fifth Season

Spoiler Free

The fifth season of 24 ended last night, with a little bit of everything that 24 is known for. There were a few, "I'm glad that happened" moments, a few "Jack Bauer is so cool" moments, a few "Whatever happened to the story with..." moments and a few "That seems ridiculous" moments.

The show's format is intriguing and also limiting. A good thing is that they are able to turn over the cast however they want, since any given day, the status quo around that day could have changed and allows them to create a whole cast. The limiting factor is that nothing ever feels really complete, since it's all happening in the same day. Since the show has gotten more popular and has a little bit of a mini-universe now, I'm sure people wish they could see more than just these snippets of the characters.

I'm surprised nobody's tried to write 24 "the books" in the way that Star Wars or Star Trek have been serialized as novels. It seems like that would be a good spin-off product, with each chapter representing an hour or something. *Note: I looked on amazon.com after writing this - there are 24: the books out there, I guess they're not that popular.*

I'm not sure how they can go on with this show for three more seasons. They've been trying hard to top themselves year after year. This season, in my opinion, started really well, and then slowed down about two-thirds of the way in, until the finale. The fourth season had a similar feel but I think it was a little better.

You can download the first episodes from season 1 and season 5 for free at Myspace, and the entire seasons 1-5 are available for purchase on myspace. iTunes also carries season 5.

Tags: 24, Jack Bauer, TV

2 Years Old, and Still Kitchen Fresh

Today is the last day of the second year of the Kitchen Fresh Blog. Thanks to all who have participated in making this blog what it is -- a silly little place where I can feel a little more important each day.
Tags: blogs, Kitchen Fresh Blog

Juiced

OJ Simpson pulls a gag in his movie/DVD, "Juiced," where he pretends to sell his white bronco, saying that, "it helped me get away." Makes me think there should be a saying to the effect of, "anyone who can laugh about his murder acquittal... is probably guilty!"
Tags: OJ Simpson

Trash Train

I think I've said it before in this space, but seeing the "Trash Train" really stinks (pun intended). When this thing pulls into your subway station, the station's not only full of garbage, but it means a train isn't coming in on your track. Here it is in action:


Tags: subway

Two Yankee Games: 4/13/06 and 5/11/06

I forgot to post some photos from my $5 Yankee experience on 4/13/06 versus the KC Royals. We saw the Yankees beat the Royals, and the Big Unit was on the hill. That's back when he was pitching well (week 2 of the season). He pitched great, and I was hoping to see Rivera pitch, but then the Yanks exploded for a bunch of runs in the 8th, making the game a blowout.


Then last night, I went to the Red Sox vs Yankees game. The story of this ticket is that I didn't look at the quantity of tickets when I bid for them on eBay and ended up buying one ticket, not two. Fortunately, it only cost $20 for a face value $45 ticket, so it wasn't too bad.

I missed Matsui breaking his wrist in the first inning. Here are some other notes and observations from the game:

The game was really slow. Shawn Chacon could only last 4+ innings, and was battling throughout. I thought the Yankees were pretty lucky to be leading late in the game since they had Bubba Crosby steal a HR from Mike Lowell in the top of the 3rd inning, and Johnny Damon take away a big double from Doug Mirabelli (which I heard John Sterling erroneously describe as a possible HR.

In the top of the sixth, the Yankees used four pitchers. Tough to watch and very slow. If Proctor had gotten it done sooner, Ortiz would have come up in the next inning, which would have slowed things down a little bit. Whenever Scott Proctor enters a game, I wish they would play a sound clip from Police Academy of Capt Harris calling for Lt Proctor (Proctor? Where is Proctor?)

There didn't seem to be a lot of BoSox fans at the game from my vantage point in Loge section (under the covering, and avoiding the rain). Usually there's a pretty vocal contingent.

They show a blooper reel all the time at Yankee games and they continue to show this clip of Tommy Lasorda getting knocked over by a bat at the All-Star Game about 5 years ago. It was funny then, but actually sort of frightening, and not really that funny any more. Can they update the blooper reel?

In the top of the 7th, A-Rod struck out with a chance to tie the game. Poor A-Rod. Everyone wants him to do well, but when he struck out, the groans were really loud. It was clear that the crowd was thinking about what the papers say about A-Rod "not doing it in a big spot."

Not Miguel Cairo's finest hour. He had 4 K's, looked foolish against Tim Wakefield's knuckleball and lost the ball tagging a runner at 1B, allowing Boston's go ahead run to score.

I was noticing that Boston has a lot of former NL players, and also former NL players on teams that beat the Yankees in the past. These include Beckett, Schilling, Lowell, A Gonzalez and Loretta. Considering that a lot of people think the AL is tougher than the NL, I'm a little surprised by these imports. I guess there's something to be said for not being intimidated by a rival?

Matsui's injury sounds pretty serious. Bubba Crosby played great. I wonder if he just played himself to a trade to another team. I hope not. I like rooting for guys named "Bubba."


Tags: baseball, Boston Red Sox, MLB, New York Yankees, Red Sox, Yankees

Pearl Jam

Last week was a big Pearl Jam week. Their album was released on Tuesday and they played a number of shows in New York City. The first show they played was on 5/4, and through my membership in the Ten Club, I tried to get free tickets, but was unsuccessful (there were only about 175 pairs of tickets available).

Then suddenly, it was announced that they would play a show on 5/5 at Irving Plaza. How do you get tickets? Buy the new album on 5/2 at Tower Records on 4th and Broadway. I decided to camp out and get tickets. We arrived at 8am and waited until midnight to get the tickets.

When we arrived at 8am we were told we were about #200 in line. Rumor was they would have about 400 tickets, so we thought we were in pretty good shape. Around 11am they handed out wristbands and it allowed us to relax a little more that we were going to end up with tickets. All in all, I didn't expect the waiting to be so tough. My allergies were going haywire from all the dirt on the street, and fortunately we were pretty much able to go back and forth from the line fairly regularly, otherwise it would have been really awful. I brought a ton of stuff to read but it was pretty draining to just sit around and wait. Frankly, I should have realized waiting on the street would have been that dirty!

Here's a picture of where we were waiting:


Around 11pm, the line started moving. Clive Davis, founder of J records came and handed out doughnuts to the crowd. Nobody really knew who he was, but thanks to my LG VX9800, I noticed on wikipedia that he had signed big music names like Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel. Pretty cool, here's a blurry picture of him:



We finally got our ticket and the album.


I noticed that the retail version of the album differed from the Ten Club (fan club) pre-order version.


The fan club version (top) was more like a little book, while the retail version was similar to the other albums (I believe it's called, digipak). The CD art was different too. Sort of a nice touch to pre-ordering.

The concert was great. Here are some blurry photos of the band. Unfortunately, I didn't learn how to zoom my camera phone until after the concert, so we're a bit far away from everyone. We were really close to the band. They played a great 2 hr set that included Garden for the first time in 6 years, 5 songs off of Ten, and we got to choose between "campfire Betterman" and State of Love and Trust. We chose SofL&T. There was a huge 90's flashback when a guy with a Rodney Hampton Giants jersey climbed onto a raised platform and jumped into the crowd. There were at least 3 crowd surfers (who all got removed by security). A lot of celebrities were in the balcony, including Eddie Vedder's wife and kid, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and their child, Flea from RHCP, the Strokes lead singer (and supposedly Drew Barrymore), supermodel Giselle Bundchen and Mary Kate Olsen (who was dancing as if she was listening to the song, Aquarius and at a hippie concert).

Set:
World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Marker In The Sand, Come Back, Garden, Even Flow, Insignificance, Given To Fly, Army Reserve, Gone, Why Go, Present Tense, Do The Evolution, Comatose
Encore 1: Man Of The Hour, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, State Of Love And Trust, Porch
Encore 2: Alive, Yellow Ledbetter

Blurry photos, the red arrow of this top photo is pointing to blurry Mary Kate.







An awesome concert. I noticed the guy standing next to me text his friend before the show "I am at the concert of a lifetime."

Tags: concert, Irving Plaza, music, Pearl Jam, rock

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Stadium Arcadium

I just picked up the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, Stadium Arcadium. It had gotten some good reviews and I enjoyed the album Californication, so I decided to take a chance. In the end, this 2 disc album, isn't too bad, but it's not that great either. Considering the four other RHCP albums that I own (Blood Sugar Sex Magik, One Hot Minute, Californication and By the Way), this one feels redundant. The group's sound hasn't changed too much and towards the middle of the 28 track album, I really thought I had heard a lot of these songs before. In a way, this album reminds me of how I felt about the Smashing Pumpkins 2-CD set, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, because it's just too much overload. Too bad they couldn't have trimmed this down to an extra long CD (16-17 tracks).

Have any rock groups really ever put out a really successful double CD? Excluding compilations, of course. Guns N Roses came pretty close with their simultaneous release of Use Your Illusion 1 & 2 but this RHCP CD isn't quite there. I enjoyed the Foo Fighters' In Your Honor, but it also isn't a classic. Then there's the aforementioned Smashing Pumpkins' disc, which like I mentioned before, was just Billy Corgan overload.

Tags: music, Red Hot Chili Peppers, rock, Stadium Arcadium

NSA Surveillance and Guns

Today the President acknowledged that the government had received phone records from phone companies regarding calls that terror suspects had made. USA Today suggests that the calls weren't just those of terror suspects, but also those of ordinary Americans.

Now let's say the government is creating a large database of phone records. This will likely infuriate liberals and the ACLU.

Those who see no problem with this measure will likely be conservatives and say that this is necessary to protect our citizens, and that anyone who isn't doing anything wrong will be fine.

I'd like to see if those same conservatives support firearm registration. After all, what I've heard about firearm registration is that citizens are concerned the government would then have a list of people with guns who it can go after. But if you aren't doing anything wrong, and just hunting, why should you worry? For that matter, why doesn't the ACLU oppose firearm registration? After all, every citizen has the right to carry a firearm.

A similar sort of inconsistency always struck me with those people who are anti-abortion and pro-capital punishment (a common set of opinions?). After all, if it's not ok to kill a fetus, why is it ok to kill an adult, regardless of what awful thing they've done?

Tags: firearms, guns, NSA, surveillance

David Blaine

Thursday night we saw David Blaine while he was at Lincoln Center preparing for his latest ABC special. He was sitting down by the time I took these pictures. Is what he does magic or is it more like daredevil-type stuff? I guess it doesn't matter, it's kind of cool and kind of excessive at the same time.

Tags: ABC, David Blaine, Lincoln Center, magic, TV