Finally!

Monica Conyers has seen the light and resigned from the Detroit City Council. Another shameful chapter in the history of our city has ended.

Of course, it took threats from the city itself as well as from Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox to actually get her to hang it up, so she doesn't deserve much credit for what might have been, if done immediately after her pleading guilty to bribery last Friday, an at least vaguely admirable act. When she actually did step down, it was with a terse three line resignation letter to the council clerk. Don't cry for me, Argentina.

What it means for Detroit is that we finally have the most polarizing vote on the Council gone. Conyers as a political player did more to drive support away from the city than even the former mayor whose name I will not mention. We can now actually get to the work of seeing ourselves in a regional light, a light which will surely allow us to progress on such major issues as Cobo Hall expansion and revamping the water system. A light which should make it easier for new Mayor Dave Bing and recently restored Council President Ken Cockrell Jr. (she thought about challenging that, if you'll recall) to move Detroit forward.

It is, as I have said all too often here, sad that it had to come to this before saner and cooler heads prevailed. Hopefully, we are now beyond crisis and into positive action.

Or do I hope too much?

Honduran Independence

An interesting and arguably illicit thing has happened this week. It puts Central America back in the news in a way in which it hasn't been in quite some time: a coup has ousted, at least for now, the democratically elected president of the tiny nation.

President Manuel Zelaya was arrested by his own military and forced into exile in nearby Costa Rica. He vows to return, and world opinion appears to support the view that he should. Maybe so, maybe no; I have long had the impression that the left desires that nations take care of their own politics. We only need witness President Obama's reluctance to speak out critically about the recent troubles in Iran as an example. Yet the world at large seems very intent that Zelaya be returned to power as soon as possible.

Is it because Zelaya is a leftist? I note with interest that the handful of his supporters who appeared outside of the Honduran Congress chanted things such as 'death to the bourgeoisie' in support of their exiled president. But it strikes me as relevant that his own party, presumably at least as leftward leaning as Zelaya, does not appear to harbor any great feelings for him.

Arguably, Honduras is seeing to its own future in attempting to reject a leader who, according to the newly sworn in President Roberto Micheletti, sought to grab a more permanent power base in the mold of Zelaya's ally, the Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. He believes that '80 - 90 percent' of the Honduran people support the recent actions to depose Zelaya. If he is right, then perhaps we ought to keep our mouths shut and respect that as the decision of the Hondurans to make for themselves.

In the end, all we can do for now is watch and wait. It does make for fascinating drama.

Hours of Painstaking Research

I have reached a certain conclusion this morning which I am sure will shake the scientific community to its very foundations. Dare I say that it may ring more true than any other measurement of any other principle in our little world. It shall indeed overwhelm the mind of man.

It has taken me hours of careful and thorough research to establish my hypothesis. Yet being a man who takes extraordinary care in establishing truth, using great and tested formulas in carrying out my experiments, testing my thoughts and means against the absolute soul of reason, I have no doubt but that my findings are correct and would be easily verified by any objective authority.

There is my challenge to all who may dare take it on. Try as you might, you will be trying in vain to disprove what I have so firmly concluded this very day, in the culmination of my studies. Your work will only frustrate you, so perfect are my axioms. Try anyway, and weep, foolish one.

For now comes the unveiling. The perfection of perfections, the final say in my morning's efforts, true beyond reproach.

It is, quite frankly...you are prepared, aren't you?

Playing solitaire does not get a blog entry written.

Hold you applause. Let wonder and awe overwhelm you. Feel free to comment; yet, I ask humbly, what more is there to say?

Saturday Musings

Do you ever get tired of all the politicians who think they are above everyone else even when the dice are stacked against them so obviously? Monica Conyers, Detroit City Councilwoman, has had her day in court, yet she still asked her adviser about her chances of reelection. The Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, apologizes for a trip to see his mistress and compares himself to King David. Can they not see the arrogance that their questions infer? You're caught, folks, the jig is up. The very least you can do is back out as gracefully as you can.

I kind of feel sorry for Farrah Fawcett. She has been inadvertently overshadowed by the death the same day she passed on by Michael Jackson.

It would be easy to criticize both of their life choices. I find myself very quick to think of the issues and events in their lives negatively, so much so that I have to remind myself that none of that matters now. Whatever mistakes they may have made, the right response to their deaths is to pray for them. God will handle the rest; they will have to answer the questions about their lives. We should, I should, take more interest in the questions He will ask me. That thought is scary enough that it should be problems others may have to rest so far as I'm concerned.

Indeed, Ms. Conyers and Mr. Sanford should get our prayers too. The one difference is that they are still alive and as such their positions relative to their constituents are fair game. Even so, and I am guilty of not following this guide on too many occasions, those issues should be handled with charity.

I'm Becoming a Curmudgeon: Part Six in an Everlasting Series

Overmanaging! I am sick and tired of it. I am especially sick and tired of how everybody seems to think that stupid thoughts and actions are actually good thoughts and actions simply because it has been drilled into their minds that they're in truth genius despite themselves. Yet overmanaging still reigns supreme in baseball.

Jim Leyland, the overmanager of my Detroit Tigers, overmanages with rapacity. Wednesday night he used six pitchers in a nine inning game. Two of them only pitched to one batter. Then, in the bottom of the ninth with his closer on the hill and in trouble (shocking!), he has only one relief pitcher left. What would have happened if the Cubs had tied the game? This is not long term thinking or big thoughts, folks. And I don't care that it worked: that could just be plain old dumb luck. Either way, simply because you got the best result doesn't mean you should have done whatever you did the way you did. You can race across the freeway at rush hour and perhaps make it safely to the far side. You were still stupid to do it. So again: six pitchers in a nine inning game? Outside of a bizarre series of injuries, that is silliness on a grand scale.

Still, in comes the closer in yesterday's game, because of course you simply must have a closer because...you need a closer, darn it, and the guy gets a save despite giving up a home run and a double. He has an earned run average of over four runs per game, yet he's our star reliever because he's designated the closer. What a vaunted position in the parliament of fools!

They need to tighten up the save rule: it is easily the most overrated statistic in baseball. The winning run ought to be on deck in order for you to earn a save; or you should have to pitch at least three innings while preserving the lead for the starter to get one. As it is, anybody ought to be able to get three outs with a three run lead at the top level of play. They get a statistical credit for that? It's a useless measuring stick.

Overmangers need to get rid of the situational left hander. Some guy gets two million a year just because he has a left handed delivery simply so he might have to pitch to one left handed batter in a game? Stupid, overthinking strategy, and nothing more. How much difference can in make? One in five thousand? A fresh arm of major league quality ought to be able to get out any given major league batter most of the time. Why this inanity over extremely slim statistical chances?

Stop overmanaging and let the players play the game, Jim. And Tony and Ozzie and Mr. Torre too. Baseball would go faster without all the unnecessary delays, and you would still be thought godsends so long as you team wins. Which it can, if it's any good, without all the hoopla over inconsequential overthinking.

Not So Wrong as I Hoped I Was

It turns out that the ruling class of Iran isn't so willing to look into election irregularities as I had hoped they might. Reports now are that thousands of government troops and civilian militias are out and about to quell what has dwindled down to mere hundreds of protesters. Supreme Ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has made it clear that the election results will stand, meaning that the madmen will keep power.

I really never should have given them the time of day last week when I expressed hope that they might actually reconsider their original position. Tyranny breeds tyranny, and tyranny does not give up without being smashed. Still, with the memory of how easily Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union fell from communism, I had though that, just maybe, we might see another miraculous turn of events.

Now we see what radical Islam actually intends: to keep people under its thumb. There is no negotiating with such a force, as the Iranian opponents of the Ayatollah have experienced personally and directly. Madmen don't compromise. It's as simple as that.

Mr. President, are you paying attention now?

Tuning Out toTune Back In

Last night I did something that I rarely do. Rather than watch the Tigers baseball game on the tube I elected to sit in my bedroom and listen to it on the radio. And while it was not exactly like the days of yore, it did allow me a little taste of that childhood of mine spent next to the small transistor radio of my Dad's hearing the wonderfully dulcet tones of Ernie Harwell and Paul Carey as they called Detroit games back in the day.

It probably helped that the game ended dramatically. Ryan Raburn hit a pinch hit walk off two run home run for the Tigers to down the Chicago Cubs 5-4. Further, there is strong link to my Tigers childhood fandom in that one of the current announcers, Jim Price, was a backup catcher on our 1968 World Series Championship team. The other, Dan Dickerson, has a great radio voice, a necessity when it comes to sports broadcasting on the small box.

Any way you slice it, It was a great way to rediscover the joy of listening to a game rather than watching it. To be sure, seeing probably trumps hearing, but I have to admit there is an added excitement in having to wait for someone else to tell the story. On TV or in person, you see what's developing and usually know what's about to happen as it unfolds. Yet when someone else controls the tempo, it adds something to the event. The unknown gets thrown into the mix; how can that not be enthralling?

I don't want to risk overstating the point, but it's a little like being read to by your parents. You're arguably more engrossed in the action precisely because you must actively imagine what's going on, and perhaps anticipate just a bit more what may happen next. It isn't simply there in front of you. You must take some part in the construction of the story. You must be able to accept that just maybe a guy from Franklin actually caught that foul pop into the stands and is taking home a souvenir.

Undoubtedly part of my reaction is nostalgic. I do miss Ernie and Paul recreating the action from old Tiger Stadium during those pre-teen nights, their words emanating magically from my father's old black and white transistor radio. But why should we ever want to leave our past completely behind us? Especially when we are talking about the good old days?