The Unseen Hand of Freedom

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SPRT
Why do they call A-Rod "A-Fraud?"

I don't know. But I'm pretty close to convinced.

I don't mean that his talent is somehow fraudulent, that he's juicing or something. I give him full credit for being one of the very best of our generation, quite possibly of all time by the time he's done. And you get there only with gobs of talent and a tireless work ethic. No exceptions.

But he's got that same sickly, plasticky sheen Tiger Woods has -- the one that says, "This is all I do; I'm a social outcast at heart, but deep down I know I'm better than you, so leave me alone and listen to my smug quote." Creepy.

When he won this year's AL MVP, for instance, he was asked about his reaction upon finding out. He tried to play it humble, and missed. He talked about what a good year David Ortiz had, and said he thought Ortiz had a chance to win even though he was a DH.

Of course, true humility is not saying "I know I could have lost." Closer to the real thing would have been something like: "Well, I'm honored to be in this kind of company, and other guys had great years." I know I might not have won. Indeed.

But, for something a little more concrete: hey, you ever feel like strings are being pulled right before your eyes, but you're just not tall enough to see the puppetmaster?

A-Rod declares he'll play for the Dominican Republic in the upcoming World Baseball Classic (whose eligibility rules are, for this year, anyway, far looser still than Hitler's were for being Jewish), then backtracks and says he'd consider the US. Then he says that to please everyone, he's just not going to play at all. Now his latest move is to declare for the US team, although the media apprently missed his phrasing ("IF I played, it WOULD be for the United States.")

Brought to you by, the people who made Carlos Delgado stand up. (See the METS section of my CONTINUED STOVE RANTINGS entry.)

POL
Flipped back through a journal, back to some time before the Abramoff deals came down and everyone got all moral. My note under BLOG reads,

4 of 5 GOP voters are being duped. (The fifth one is in on it.)

I think this is so true. Think about the implications for a minute. Think, too, about books, if you're familiar, like "What's the Matter With Kansas." 4 out of 5 simply have the wool pulled over their eyes. The fifth is protecting his own interests, advertently or in-, by doing the wool-pulling.

Ancillary: The Democratic populous is hardly perfect (see previous rants on the government-subsidized status quo, for starters) but what they really want more frequently overlaps with what their representatives really want.

POL
Recent news: Osama bin Laden's voice -- confirmed to be his, apparently -- is heard publicly (on Al Jazeera) for the first time in over a year. He says that another attack on the United States is imminent.

In unrelated news, the Hussein trial is underway, and a huge circus.

In other unrelated news, George W. Bush was re-elected based on fear. (Look, the poll numbers bear it out. Or, if it's more up your alley, so do bar chatter and letters to the editor, all of which read, "You're sitting there crying about civil liberties, but where will you be when they blow up a big city?" You can almost hear the whimpering.)

In other, even less-related news, the Bush family continues to be tight with the bin Ladens.

Oh? Don't believe me? Hey, they've been in business together for 30 years. In fact, it's public record that George H.W. Bush was with one of the bin Ladens when the planes hit the towers.

Yes, really. (Mutual business associates include the unnamed Saudi nationals who were secretly spirited out of the country in the days following, when no other planes were allowed off the ground. If you don't know about this, I suggest you stop reading this journal (no one likes a blog) and either pick up Howard Zinn's "A People's History Of the United States" or go bury your head back in the sand.)

Of course, the bin Ladens say they no longer support Osama.

Of also course, we haven't exactly caught him yet (or spent much effort looking for him), either.

Let's go, people. You did it when you were five: connect the dots.

MR

QWTOFDY
"He stared at ruin. Ruin stared straight back.
He thought they were old friends."
-John Berryman

2006: Reds 2, Giants 0

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SPRT
Wow, how about that one.

Cincinnati Reds supersub Ryan Freel (good name for a supersub, no?) was arrested this weekend on an alcohol-related charge at a Tampa pool hall. According to reports, police were summoned at 3:35 a.m. concerning a minor fight, and subsequently booked Freel on a misdemeanor disorderly intoxication charge. Freel, 29, was also cited for alcohol-related charges on opening night last season.

Freel's always been one of those guys, like a David Eckstein, who really maxes out his modest potential. This comes as a disappointment, and, frankly, is shocking to me personally.

The really shocking part is that Freel can be wasted in a bar at half past three a.m. in Tampa, but here in the great City By The Bay they boot you out as soon as the clock touches quarter to two.

SPRT
In other news, the Reds came to terms with former Giant Rich Aurelia, who holds this unofficial Major League record: his name is not only a word, but the bulk of an entire conversation.

(-Oh, really?
-Yeah!)

MR

QWTOFDY
"If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament."
-Florynce R. Kennedy

Witchy Women, and the Men Who Love Them

MUSIC +++ FILM +++ SPORT +++ PHOTO +++ LINK +++ POORLY REASONED POLITICAL OPINION AND STUPID JOKE

THTR
So, just to share with you a little anecdote:

The other day I'm at this New Year's party -- filled with government-types and local dignitaries, actually, plus two six foot-odd queens in red pantent leather drag, God bless this town -- and I fall into a conversation with another gay gentleman and his partner about my time in Atlanta, and whether it would be very oppressive for people like them to live there.

To sum up, I agree that the thinking man must write off glacier-sized chunks of the local sapien fauna to survive in comfort; still, I point out, not only is Atlanta, next to San Francisco, the gayest city in the nation -- really -- but it's also got scads of commerce, culture, traffic, and the rest of it, not to mention bundles of Mexicans, Mexicants, Ethiopes, Chinamen and -women, and Original Hippies, all of which amount to five times the population we have in our precious worldly and diverse Don't Call It Frisco.

None of this being the point of today's entry, but just FYI. At this point, feeling I've talked enough about myself and the things I think I know, I ask the fellow what he does. He gets a little queeny on me, unabashedly, in describing his practice as a voice coach and sometime opera singer, preferring, he insists, on sharing the stage with no one.

The last thing he worked on, he says, was a highly successful musical called Wiccan. You know, he says, about the lives of witches.

A musical about Wiccan? Vegetarian lesbians being pulled through the air on second-rate suspension wires, straddling broomsticks and yodeling about sisterhood with the Earth and the ritual burning of Lady Gillettes?

You remember, the musical, Wiccan, about the witches... I decline to suppress a chuckle, and press him about the production.

No, no, he corrects me. "WICKED." From the Wizard of Oz.

Oh. Yeah, I saw that one.

2K6
Have a happy new year yourself. Here's hoping it's less interesting (read: shitty) than 2005.

POL
Abramaoff cops twice (DC; FLA): Good start. Word is they cut him a deal (I was repulsed at first, then realized any jail time at all is much worse than he's prepared for; he got eight years for the DC bit) so they could get to as many as twenty congressmen.

Good thing we got all those Republicans into power, to keep the scope of the federal government from getting out of hand.

Oh, and if you're reading this, federal government: thanks for stopping by again. Help yourself to some candy on the way out, and say hello to your lovely wife for me.

MR

QWTOFDY
This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education..: You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't."
-David Foster Wallace