Harry Kalas is gone...

There are some people whom, though you may never have met them in your life, their loss nevertheless fills you with profound sadness. Today Harry Kalas, known to Phillies fans as "Harry the K" died. Growing up in the seventies and watching the Phillies, I remember that voice so well. Hearing it to the present day it always stirred memories of watching games with my father. Mr. Kalas' voice was an incredible gift, and it always gave games added emotion and drama. Listening to Harry, you felt as though each home run or strikeout was another play in a competition taking place on Olympus. When watching with my dad our emotions would reach great heights whenever "Michael Jack Schmidt" (Harry always included his middle name" ) hit a home run, and the emotional of those moments helped bond us, despite the disagreements and arguments that would plague us in later years. With my father's passing, it seemed when I would hear Harry the K's voice broadcasting the Phillies, there was still a ghost of my father still in the room, and I was still a kid watching, looking up to my father for his take on the game, both of us filled with simple happiness at the joys one gets from watching baseball. Now that he has gone, it seems one more link in the chain of memories connecting me to my father has been lost. So rest in peace in Harry. Whatever game they play in heaven, they just found an announcer for it.

Sadism, the fright wing, and the "Other".

I came across this by Glenn Greenwald from a few months back that I missed. Sums things up all too well.

The Media Double Standard

Andrew Sullivan points out the double standard in today's media. Under Bush they failed utterly in their job as government watchdogs. They were instead lapdogs for Bush and rolled over anytime the administration complained. If I hear one more time about the "liberal media"-especially in light of the fact that so far they have been harder on Obama than they ever were on Bush (and I consider that a good thing, believe it or not), I think I will commit hari-kari.

Battlestar Galactica: Post-immersion thereapy for a 9/11 world

I've become quite a fan of the show, though it wasn't until between the second and third seasons; I rented the DVD's and became quite an addict. One of the reasons is because the show addresses so many issues, and not from a bombastic, preachy point of view. Rather it leaves a lot of ambiguity and for the viewer to decide many of these issues for themselves (treating viewers like adults, what a concept). This recent article sums up the show's appeal very well.

Wall Street is decadent and depraved

The awesome Matt Taibbi breaks it all down for us. Our country has become a plutocracy right under our noses, and if you aren't a Wall Street money man (or woman) you are the modern version of a slave in Mississippi circa 1850. The system is truly broken, and sadly Obama is not going to be the man to fix it-at least not now. Maybe he might wake up at some point and smell the coffee burning, and realize that Geithner, Summers, and the rest of the bozos that he has brought in to manage this mess are simply the same men with different names who got us into this mess in the first place. But I doubt it. Not that McCain would have done better. In fact he would have been worse, because he and his crew would have insisted less regulation is the way to go and would have put into power the odorous Phil Gramm, even worse than Geithner or Summers. But this just underscores my point: Democrat or Republican, it doesn't matter. The rich literally own and run this country now, and the rest of us are not only along for the ride, but we have to pay to fix the damn roller coaster when it breaks down, not the ones who invented it in the first place.

The Decline and Fall of the Republican Party

Many Republicans are turning against the Limbaugh led idiots that claim to be the "conservative" party. If this keeps up not only do they risk being insignificant to today's political debate, they might actually splinter into separate factions.

Gaza

The animator of Waltz with Bahir has created an animated short about the plight of Gaza's civilians. One of his goals, he says, was to show that not all Israelis want war with the Palestinians.

Today's Republican Party

This sums it all up, better than any words can.

An argument for national health care

Nicolas Kristof, who I'm not always a fan of, has an excellent column on what this country desperately needs, a national health care system. Obama might be the man to get us at least closer to that promised land.