Tiny Moon is No Space Station :: Astrobiology Magazine

Tiny Moon is No Space Station :: Astrobiology Magazine :: Search for Life in the Universe

This really upgrades Mimas in the next game of Solarquest I play...

Wow, I've been there & done that.

I Drew This: Political jock.

Sums up my feelings nicely.

Losing Kansas

This is a very good article about the Democratic party's dive to the right on economic issues and the resulting social consequences. I think this captures some of the frustrations of the 2000 Nader voters. And also why rural America is voting more Republican despite it being generally against their own economic interests.

Chicago Sports Notes

No links as I'm being lazy; you can hunt around the sources yourself, I'm sure.

• The hot baseball rumor over the All-Star Break was Randy Johnson to the Red Sox, Nomah to the Cubs, and Cubs prospects to the Diamondbacks. The Chicago Tribune is downplaying the notion today. ESPN is reporting that the 5 teams the Big Unit will accept a trade to are the Red Sox, Cubs, White Sox, Yankees, and Angels. It makes little sense for the Cubs to acquire Johnson; they have good starters in both the majors and minors. It would be huge for the White Sox to get him, but I have no idea what they could possibly have in minor league talent that would be a worthy package. It's not a strong system.
  
  
• ESPN was also reporting there's a tiny chance the Bulls could land Kobe Bryant in a sign-and-trade deal with the Lakers. The Lakers would do this to keep him from playing for the Clippers in the same building as they do. I don't see Kobe doing this unless he's gone completely delusional and has started to think he is Jordan.
  
  
• Ditka, as you've probably heard, will not run for Senate. Personally, if he had run, I'd have thought the Democrats could have just bought billboards and ads that just showed the picture of Ditka with Ricky Williams in the wedding dress. ("See! He's pro gay marriage!" That would keep the yahoos away from the polls....)
  
  
• It's the 10th anniversary of the Albert Belle corked bat game. The White Sox suspected his bat--no one knows why--so the umps took it and put it in their locker room. Jason Grimsley, Belle's teammate in Cleveland at the time, pulled a "Mission Impossible" and crawled through the ceiling from the visitor's clubhouse to the ump's room, moved a ceiling tile, and switched the bat for a "clean" one. The White Sox clubhouse manager noticed the ceiling entry, and the umps eventually got the right bat back from Cleveland. It was corked, and Belle drew a 10-game suspension, reduced on appeal. The reason no one remembers this is that a month later the Strike started. Heck, I didn't remember it until I read it in the Trib this morning...
  

Think Like the Enemy for a Minute

UPDATE 7-14 10:20 am: Plastic is now discussing this and the election-suspension contigencies Don has brought up in the comments.

At the risk of pissing off Delenn, let's consider the notion that al-Qaeda wants to influence the US elections from their perspective from a moment.

First of all, which candidate would they even want? Kerry would be less likely than Bush to extend the practice of invading Middle East regimes, but he wouldn't bail on the notion that the US has vital security interests there. He wouldn't yank troops from Iraq and he would probably pay more attention to actually disrupting al-Qaeda and hunting down their leadership. Bush in some ways has been the best al-Qaeda recruiting poster.

Also to consider is which way an attack would influence elections? Unlike Spain, the electorate is not overwhelmingly in opposition to the president's Iraq policy, and isn't likely to change their vote to someone who will make them safer through withdrawal and non-provocation of the terrorists. Karl Rove et al. would no doubt spin the attacks as a reason we need to keep the fasc law-and-order, fightin' the good fight, administration in power. Would the public agree, or come to the conclusion that the Bush administration is not making us safer, and that Kerry could do a better job of it? If you did want to keep Bush in power, you might do well to up the "chatter" but not do anything and let the administration claim they thwarted something.

As a side note, I can't say I'm encouraged that some Democrats are accusing the administration of talking this threat up to distract from the Edwards VP news. That may be the case, but it looks petty for the Democratic leadership to say it. Leave the conspiracy theories to the internet.

These are not very fully formed thoughts, so I'm hoping for your comments on these issues..