Welcoming Veteran Fathers Home

I wish I would have found these yesterday, but I think they're too cute not to post. This one is a video of veteran fathers surprising their kids at school:



And this one is of...dogs welcoming their owners home.



Go here if you want more dog videos.

Happy Veteran's Day

Ready to cry?



If you're interested, the following are a couple of organizations that are involved in giving aid to our soldiers currently serving our country:

• Soldier's Angels - they have a number of different projects that you can help with including letter writing, putting together packages, and a number of other things.
• Kick for Nick - I highlighted this one on Memorial Day. Nick was a soldier killed in Iraq, and this organization is his family's effort to donate soccer balls for the kids in Iraq in his memory.

Thanks, vets.

Ft. Hood Massacre

Jay Nordlinger quipped in his column the other day:

The general media reaction to the Ft. Hood massacre reminded me of an old joke. It’s about modern American liberals. One reason I feel secure in telling it is that I learned it from a liberal — from the commentator Mark Shields, who told it on television many years ago. Two liberals are walking down the road and they come to a person in the ditch. He has been beaten, and lies moaning, broken, bleeding. One liberal says to the other, “Quick, we have to find the people who did this: They need help.”

I wonder what all of your takes are on what happened last week. I don't watch any normal news so I don't get much on the normal mainstream media front, but I read tons of political commentary so I have my ideas formed already.

The joke is especially relevant to this incident because of the treatment that Hassan is getting from the MSM, largely that everyone is willing to give this guy a free pass before admitting that this had anything to do with Islamic extremism. And what's the problem with that? The problem is that there had been numerous red-flags about this guy in the months leading up to what occurred last week, but in the interest of political correctness and the backbreaking ends people will go to preach tolerance all those red flags were ignored.

One writer that I especially admire, Jonah Goldberg, has taken up this cause of calling black black, and extremism extremism. From his article Connecting the Dots, Jonah writes:

“As a senior-year psychiatric resident at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Maj. Nidal M. Hasan was supposed to make a presentation on a medical topic of his choosing as a culminating exercise of the residency program,” reports the Washington Post.

Hasan went a different way. He opted to give a bizarre PowerPoint presentation in which he defended suicide bombing, explaining that non-believers should be beheaded, be burned alive, and have boiling oil poured down their throats (presumably not in that order). He argued that all Muslims should be discharged from the military.

One slide concluded: “We love death more then [sic] you love life!”

According to the Post, the medical staff in attendance was deeply disturbed by the incident. But there’s apparently no record of anyone’s reporting it to authorities. That would be insensitive and discriminatory.

Today, in his column Sometimes, an Extremist Really is an Extremist, Goldberg writes:

President Obama was right when he said, in the early hours after the shooting, that people shouldn't "jump to conclusions" (a lesson he might have learned when he jumped to the wrong conclusion about a white cop who arrested Henry Louis Gates, a black Harvard professor). But just as we should not jump to conclusions, we shouldn't jump away from them.

Despite reports that Hasan had shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he opened fire, MSNBC's Chris Matthews insisted that "we may never know if religion was a factor at Ft. Hood." Thursday night, NBC and CBS refrained from even reporting the man's name. Meanwhile, ABC's Martha Raddatz's reporting on the subject reflected a yearning for denial: "As for the suspect, Nadal Hasan, as one officer's wife told me, 'I wish his name was Smith.' "

We have a real problem when much of the political and journalistic establishment is eager to jump to the conclusion that peaceful political opponents are in league with violent extremists, but is terrified to consider the possibility that violent extremists really are violent extremists if doing so means calling attention to the fact that they are Muslims.

I am more sympathetic toward this reluctance to state the truth of the matter than some of my colleagues on the right. There is a powerful case to be made that Islamic extremism is not some fringe phenomena but part of the mainstream of Islamic life around the world. And yet, to work from that assumption might make the assumption all the more self-fulfilling. If we act as if "Islam is the problem," as some say, we will guarantee that Islam will become the problem. But outright denial, like we are seeing today, is surely not the beginning of wisdom either.

I have no remedy for the challenge we face. But I do take some solace in George Orwell's observation that "to see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle."

Please be aware that this is becoming something that is occurring with some regularity, about 3-4 times a year within the borders of the United States, but because of the trepidation that Americans have about appearing intolerant, it's going under-reported. Some of those incidents that occur are plots that have been foiled, but include things like last week's massacre, or simply some crazed extremist running his car through a crowd of civilians. This is actually happening. And it's maddening to think that the President has failed to say anything more about the incident than to simply state that we must not jump to conclusions and worry more about protecting against anti-Islamic backlash.

What about protecting the American people first who actually like this country?

SYTYCD Tour

This event in itself was pretty amazing. The show was more entertaining as a whole than I would have otherwise anticipated, and it was nice to see all of the favorites from the summer being performed live again. Every major dance piece that I wanted to see was done that night.

The best solos came from the two dancers not in the top 10, Phillip and Caitlyn. I think Brandon, Ade and Jeanette were the best performers by far. Every movement by Brandon and Ade had so much pop and so much extension. Even though they had already been to so many other cities, everything they did looked like it was for the first time on stage. Randi, of course, got a huge ovation from the crowd being that she's from Orem. Phillip had the loudest applause of the night after his solo, which also was probably a full minute longer than all of the other dancers. Below is a somewhat decent video from the same night:


The most entertaining part of the evening was supplied by the two teenage girls sitting to my left during the show. Not only did they scream so loudly and constantly that their voices were hoarse before the intermission, but they knew most of the dances being performed and did their own renditions of them from their seats. Their favorite, by far, was Jason. I swear, if there were some way to tap into hyper-teenage-girl-energy, we would have an endless supply of renewable energy that could provide for the needs of our country. I just loved how rigid with excitement they became at just about everything that happened that night. That alone made up for the price of admission.

Now onto my favorites...I had kind of forgotten about this number by Ade and Janette:


I've posted these last two before, but they're both my favorites so you get another taste:




Some other favorites included the addiction dance with Kapono and Kayla, disco with Brandon and Janette, and the contemporary number with Jason and Jeanine where they make-out at the end. It was a lot of fun, and I have no problem admitting that I loved every minute of it.

No, Thanks. I'm Straight...I Think

Some of you might recall that I had written this post, about how a black man from Sierra Leone wanted a piece of me, a little over a year ago.

This story starts several months back when I went to a Kelly Clarkson concert in Orem. There was one guy there who was way more into the show than anybody else. He danced with reckless abandon for the duration of the show and was screaming every word to every song. I know, you might be thinking I'm really just describing myself, but this guy was more into Kelly than anyone ever could have been. Now skip ahead a couple of months to the beginning of this semester...

I'm a TA for a stats class and, lo and behold, this same kid from the Kelly show walks right up to the front to take a seat in the first row of the computer lab that I teach on Fridays for the class. I immediately recognized him, but decided to wait a little while before bringing up Kelly, which ended up being about a month ago.

I thought maybe he would be a little bit embarrassed to admit he was there like I had felt, but he was completely unapologetic about it. A reserved enthusiasm boiled over his countenance as he began to reminisce about how amazing Kelly is live, and how he also got to see her play in New York at Central Park during the Today Show. The conversation was brief, and then I was on my way.

This past Friday, I was finishing up the lab when I had to switch pens because the ink was running out of the first one. I end the class with the new bright blue pen, and wish the students well on their upcoming test. Kelly fan says to me, "I really like that color, it's a good color." Thinking he was referring to the pen, I respond with some dumb joke about the pen, when he corrects me saying, "No, no. I like that lilac color on you, it's a good color for you."

Yes, I was wearing a shirt that can be described as a lilac, but he had caught me off guard. I said thanks, and then moved over to the teacher's podium to check my email on the computer before I left the room. All of the students except for Kelly fan and one other student had left by this time, when he decides to approach me and prop himself up on the table just a foot or so away from me to ask if I had been to any other cool concerts like Kelly.

Noting his close physical proximity, the very recent compliment he had given me, his body language, as well as remembering that he is a theater student who speaks in highly feminine tones, I began to get uncomfortable. I wanted to be nice, but not inviting; short, but not rude. I told him that Kelly was actually the first pop concert that I had been to, but that I enjoy just about anything live, and that I had even gone to a punk show last weekend. He told me about some band that he was going to see, and the conversation kind of drifted off from there, but before departing he looked over both shoulders as if to see if anyone else was in the class. When he saw the other student, he just got up and let me alone.

When I write about it now, I almost feel like I'm just reading too much into it, but I know at the time I was definitely feeling the vibe from him. And I was thinking that if I had done any combination of those things to a girl, I would be indicating my own dating interest.

What I should have told him (that would have erased any doubts about my heterosexuality) was that the very next night I would be going to see the top 10 dancers perform on tour for So You Think You Can Dance, which post will come shortly...

I Love The People In My Life

...is a thought that I often have, and one that I've especially been feeling lately.

I have roommates that under other circumstances, I probably wouldn't have chosen for myself, but it turns out that they're really great guys. One of them I can talk sports with endlessly, and the other is just the nicest guy. He makes food, albeit it's not always that great, but he always means well. And he always is trying to facilitate my dating life for me.

I've been a little under the weather the last few days, and I won't usually ask for anything from people, but that's not to say that I don't love people wanting to take care of me. One friend of mine made me dinner the other night, then sent me home with a goodie bag of leftovers, and all the ingredients of the drug cocktail that she uses when she gets sick.

I have a second family at home and here in Utah that I don't hesitate at all to spend the holidays with. I have an army of people that I can talk to about everything that is going on in my life. I have a best friend, and I'm pretty sure we're about as close as any two best friends can be. I have people with whom I can play soccer, go running, work-out, do yoga, go dancing, go to lunch, or just talk. My ward is great. The other students in my cohort are awesome, and the professors I work with are all wonderful.

And I even love the people that participate regularly in my blog that I've never even met.
I'm just really lucky. Thanks, everyone.

20th Anniversary - Fall of the Berlin Wall

This semester I've been trying to maximize a bit more on my educational opportunities at BYU. I go to more lectures, and I'm wanting/trying to get more involved in some of the extracurricular activities here at the Y.

Today a former ambassador, Dr. Lynn Hansen, was invited to come and speak with respect to the fall of the Berlin wall. Actually, his lecture turned into a lot of old Cold War stories, which were still awesome, but had little to do with today's celebration.

20 years ago this day East Germany opened up the gates through the Berlin wall that allowed citizens of that country to freely move from one country to the other for the first time in about 20 years, give or take a few.

Peter Robinson, the speechwriter who crafted Reagan's Tear Down This Wall speech, gives some insight into the construction of that speech:

In April 1987, when I was assigned to write the Brandenburg Gate address, I spent a day in Berlin with the White House advance team, the logistical experts, Secret Service agents, and press officials who went to the site of every presidential visit to make arrangements. In the evening, I broke away from the advance team to join a dozen Berliners for dinner. Our hosts were Dieter and Ingeborg Elz, who, after Dieter completed his career at the World Bank in Washington, had retired to Berlin. Although we had never met, we had friends in common, and the Elzes had offered to put on this dinner party to give me a feel for their city. They had invited Berliners of different walks of life and political outlooks--businessmen, academics, students, homemakers.

We chatted for awhile. Then I explained that, earlier in the day, the ranking American diplomat in West Berlin had told me that over the years Berliners had made a kind of accommodation with the wall. "Is it true?" I asked. "Have you gotten used to it?"

The Elzes and their guests glanced at each other uneasily. Then one man raised an arm and pointed. "My sister lives twenty miles in that direction," he said. "I haven't seen her in more than two decades. Do you think I can get used to that?" Another man spoke. As he walked to work each morning, he explained, a soldier in a guard tower peered down at him through binoculars. "That soldier and I speak the same language. We share the same history. But one of us is a zookeeper and the other is an animal, and I am never certain which is which."

Our hostess broke in. A gracious woman, Ingeborg Elz had suddenly grown angry. Her face was red. She made a fist with one hand and pounded it into the palm of the other. "If this man Gorbachev is serious with his talk of glasnost and perestroika," she said, "he can prove it. He can get rid of this wall."

* * * * *

Back at the White House I adapted her comment, making "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" the central line in my draft. On Friday, May 15, the speeches for the President's trip--he would be traveling to Rome and Venice before reaching Berlin--were forwarded to the President, and on Monday, May 18, the speechwriters joined him in the Oval Office. My speech was the last we discussed. "Mr. President," I said, "I learned on the advance trip that this speech will be heard not only in West Berlin but throughout East Germany. Is there anything you'd like to say to people on the other side of the Berlin Wall?"

The President cocked his head and thought. "Well," he replied, "there's that passage about tearing down the wall. That wall has to come down. That's what I'd like to say to them."

* * * * *

With three weeks to go before it was delivered, the speech was circulated to the State Department and the National Security Council. Both attempted to suppress it. The draft was naive. It would raise false hopes. It was clumsy. It was needlessly provocative. State and the NSC submitted their own alternate drafts--my journal records that there were no fewer than seven. In each, the call to tear down the wall was missing.

When in early June the President and his party reached Italy (I remained in Washington), Ken Duberstein, the deputy chief of staff, sat the President down in the garden of the palazzo in which he was staying, then briefed him on the objections to my draft. Reagan asked Duberstein's advice. Duberstein replied that he thought the line about tearing down the wall sounded good. "But I told him, 'You're President, so you get to decide.'" And then, Duberstein recalls, "he got that wonderful, knowing smile on his face, and he said, 'Let's leave it in.'"

The day the President arrived in Berlin, State and NSC submitted yet another alternate draft. Yet in the limousine on the way to the Berlin Wall, the President told Duberstein he was determined to deliver the controversial line. Reagan smiled. "The boys at State are going to kill me," he said, "but it's the right thing to do."

What's great about that excerpt above is how personal those accounts are, and how meaningful it must have been for the people of East and West Germany to hear the preeminent world leader speaking in there behalf, saying the words that they could not utter themselves. Whenever I watch that clip of Reagan saying those words, it sends chills through my bones.

Over in Germany they had a celebration to commemorate this day and guess who was conspicuously absent from the festivities? None other than our very own President Obama. The guy has no problem giving a campaign speech from the Brandenburg Gates, where both Kennedy and Reagan gave immortal speeches, but somehow he doesn't find it necessary to celebrate one of the most significant events in the last 50 years.

Make no mistake, Communism is an evil institution. This is a day worth celebrating, indeed.

Lots Of Things

More on most of these later...

• When I first heard about the Ft. Hood massacre, and saw the guy's name, I couldn't believe that the story didn't at least consider the possibility that this guy was an Islamic extremist, or at least profoundly anti-American. Now I've been reading that he may have been shouting "Allahu Akbar" as he was gunning people down. In case you don't know, that is the refrain that terrorists shout when they are performing their killings. It means "God is great". Obama's weak response this morning is equally annoying.
• This morning, I'm pretty sure that a student was flirting with me. The student is a guy.
• Obama is not going to Berlin to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall.
  
• Sometimes I just don't get people. And sometimes I don't get me either. Anyone and everyone can be very confusing.
  
• I think I want to write for the BYU Political Review. The title of my first article that I'll be submitting will be E Pluribus Unum.
  
• I haven't been that into SYTYCD this season, but last night two routines really stood out to me - the fear dance and the Bollywood number. The thing is, they both have dancers that really annoy me. I think Legacy is terrible outside of his b-boying, and Mollee's personality bugs me, but they were both really good this week. I think I liked the Bollywood piece more than the fear one, but I think that's because I'm rooting for Nathan.
  

Moving Along

This song is one of my favorites to sing to on Singstar.

The All-American Rejects - Move Along - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

This is turning into kind of a strange week. I've been busy, but not a lot with actual things that I'm supposed to be doing. I got comfortable after I realized last week that I'm doing really well in my classes, so this week I've been a little slow to keep up with business as usual. But between today and tomorrow, all my classes have been canceled, so I have a bunch of extra time available that I'm not sure how to spend. No, of course not homework. I'm an achiever, not an overachiever.

There are certain aspects of dating that I just loathe - feeling obligated to go to social functions because you need to meet people, always feeling like you're being measured, all that stuff. But there are other aspects that are really fun - getting phone numbers, connecting with new people, that sorta thing.

Looking back on my dating history, I have always seemed to be attracted to pretty smart girls, albeit with an exception here and there, and not to say the exceptions were at all dumb. And for the record, any of those girls who may be reading this are among the smart ones. Not just saying that. It is, in fact, true. More importantly, although none of the girls I've ever been interested have been goodie-goodies at all, they've all been very solid in their testimonies of the church.

I guess what's funny to me is thinking about different moments where I've been especially attracted to certain girls, and they're not typical things like how hot she looks in a certain outfit or whatever (not that I still don't appreciate those things), but things like hearing a girl talk about the role of journalism in modern society, or another discussing marketing strategies for a friend's new restaurant, or another weighing the cost-benefit possibilities of a small business, or another about fashion design and the artistry involved, or another discussing the application of 4th amendment rights. I laugh thinking that I want to sidle up closest when I hear a person in her element, strutting her stuff. Although it's not to say that I'm an expert at all in any of these different things that I mentioned, but I think it's to my benefit that I find a variety of things interesting enough that I am able to be at least a little informed on a number of different areas and, thus, appreciate the different strengths that these girls have to offer. I dunno. Just thinking aloud, I guess.

What's kinda funny to me also is my train of thought when I'm with someone that I want to make a good impression on: be funny/witty, but not so much so that it looks like you're trying too hard; be smart/insightful enough that you come off as having something valuable to offer, but not so much so that you come off as being smug; be nice and kind enough that you show people that you know how to treat people right, but not so much so that it seems like you are willing to be someone's doormat. Then, with all of these preconditions in mind, I'm trying to nail down that impression in about five minutes or less. It can be exhausting at times.

One other thing on attraction - I was watching a tennis tournament over the summer and they showed Andy Roddick's wife in the stands who, of course, is gorgeous. When I saw her I could recognize her obvious outward beauty, but having no knowledge of who she is as a person I didn't feel like she was at all very attractive to me. It struck me as odd that I couldn't just be the male ape and issue my mating cry just because she exhibits the physical traits that I'd like my offspring to have. I guess I need more now.

On the other hand, I've dated and known other girls who I know are pretty and some really good-looking, but I can openly recognize that not everyone would find them as attractive as I do. With some of these girls, I can honestly admit that at the height of my affection for them, I genuinely thought that the girl was the most beautiful person that had ever set two feet on the ground. I've definitely had my moments when I have been reduced to a jaw-dropping, gawking, stuttering, blithering mass of goo that has melted at the sight of my loved one, although I may not always be so obvious about it. You know, the kind of moment when it's slightly overcast, light moisture falls, and her saunter to me is choreographed to Etta James' At Last playing in the background as she approaches in a slow motion stroll, the wind teasing at both her hair and my heart as I my knees buckle at the sight of her. My very own Helen of Troy, all because of the fact that my intimate knowledge of her person and character has provided her access to steal my affections.

With my extra time this week I guess I've just been a little more reflective on my dating experiences. I'm just sayin'.

Strung Out In Layton

I caught Strung Out up in Layton on Friday and they were awesome. What's cool about coming out of their shows is always hearing these types of comments - are they not the best band you've ever seen live? Jason Cruz is a god, etc. Their fans just love them. They have a new album, and admittedly, I didn't think it was their best effort at first, but it's such a different thing hearing songs played live. Certain songs were just never meant to be played only on a CD, they just have to be heard in person with the bass thumping and smoke in the air, and people moving to the music. They have been doing more harmonies lately and they actually sound really good doing it live as well, which is kind of cool. Jason's voice is strained in that video, but it's still pretty decent. I've never seen him play the guitar before. They also played that one at the show, and of course, it was awesome.

I ended up going by myself, which for a lot of people is crazy, but I was thinking about it earlier in the week when I was deciding if I would actually go or not. There are certain things that I won't be able to do forever, and there are certain things that I would drop anything for just to experience for myself. I would always try to make it to any major life events for any of my friends or family if I can help it. I would never turn down an opportunity to see an Angels playoff game. And I would always take any and every opportunity to hear and see Strung Out play Matchbook at the end of a show.

The bulk of their songs came off the Twisted By Design album, with several songs off the newest one, and select songs from all of the other ones.

If I were to ever get a tatoo, it would be the astrolux symbol that is their insignia. I know it's juvenile, but I just love them.

The True Story Behind Invictus

Happy Halloween!

Pictures to follow. Hope you all lived it up today. Peace, y'all! Be blessed!

Here Comes The Best Movie Of The Year - Invictus

Over the summer ESPN had their annual ESPY awards show and they highlighted the story of the South African Rugby team that won the World Cup. Dave told me about the story, about how he even cried while watching it in his living room by himself, and I so desperately wanted to see it, but could never find the rebroadcast. I looked for a book to no avail. And then I kind of forgot about it, until they started showing commercials for the film during the World Series.

The story goes basically like this: Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa in a huge upset victory after having served almost 30 years in prison for being an anti-apartheid activist. The country still suffered from glaring racial division, and he saw the Rugby World Cup as an opportunity to ease those tensions. South Africa was the host nation, but an enormous underdog to win the title. Nevertheless, he made every effort to ensure that all South Africans, white and black, would be cheering together for their country to win, and against daunting odds, win they did.

This movie, Invictus, is the story of that team and the healing of a nation. It's slated to be released December 11th. Morgan Freeman stars as Nelson Mandela, Matt Damon plays the national team coach Francois Pienaar, and Clint Eastwood directs. Can anyone say Oscar favorite?

Now that you can see through your tears, the movie title comes from the poem by William Ernest Henley:

OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Want to know something else cool? Invictus is latin for unconquerable. In 1875, Henley, from his hospital bed, wrote this poem determined to survive the tuberculosis that forced doctors to amputate his foot and that threatened his life. At that time tuberculosis used to be a death sentence, but Henley went on to live another 30 years after being released from the hospital.

Real life has the most amazing stories. Oh, and I found the book, go here if you're interested.

It's A Good Life

Is there anyone else who used to be a huge fan of the Twilight Zone? I LOVED it as a kid. They scared the crap out of me, but I just ate them up. My favorite was when Thanksgiving or 4th of July would come and a certain television station would broadcast Twilight Zone marathons all day long. I would sit and watch for just about all of it. That's no exaggeration. I just loved those shows. That's where I first came into contact with this story, It's A Good Life, by Jerome Bixby.

Yesterday while avoiding school work (like always) I came across a post by one of my political guys who mentioned re-reading it recently. I looked for it online to see if I could just happen upon it and not have to go out and buy another book just for one little short story (you'd be surprised how many times I've done that). I did end up finding it, and you can read it too by clicking here.

It's not gory or horrific, but just creepy as hell in that classic Twilight Zone kind of way. You can watch a poor quality episode by going here. I think it's also featured on Twilight Zone the movie. If you have twenty minutes to spare, read the story. It's only about 15 pages long. Here's the last line from the story, which will make a whole lot more sense after you read it.

Next day it snowed, and killed off half the crops--but it was a good day.

Bonus: While looking for the episode, I came across this video of scary scenes from other movies. I had no idea what I was watching in the first one, but it almost stopped my heart. I think I'm just the right kind of mood. Anyway, watch this, if you dare:

U2 Live

I meant to post this before the concert, but better late than never. This past Sunday, U2 finished up their most recent tour in Pasadena, CA at the Rose Bowl. To include more people, they decided to stream live the entire concert on YouTube. You can catch it on their YouTube channel, that you can access by clicking here. It's extremely high quality.

Looking Back - 2009 Angels

When the Angels broke for spring training last season, I was more than apprehensive. I wondered aloud whether they would even make it out of the division. I worried that not signing Texeira would leave us with a gaping hole in the middle of the lineup, and it turned out that we somehow improved on our offense from the previous year without him there. That had everything to do with the signing of Bobby Abreu and the maturation of Morales and Aybar.

The season started, and Nick Adenhart died in a car crash. The team floundered for about a month as they tried to find themselves, and then destroyed MLB pitching from June-July. I loved it. Our starting pitching which had normally been a strength, was flopping with all the injuries that guys were having. Lackey started the season on the DL; Escobar pitched one game before being shut down for the season, again; Saunders lost his 2008 form, until he was able to rest his shoulder when the rest of the staff finally stabilized; and we never had a fifth starter until Kazmir joined the team in September. In spite of losing Rodriguez to free agency, Shields to injury, and Jose Arredondo to wild inconsistency, we still had a decent bullpen. Good, but not great. Sufficient, at least until the postseason.

More than anything I have to applaud Mike Scioscia for his handling of this team. I absolutely could not be more happy that we have him locked up through 2018. His handling of the team through the tragedy, the class with which he always handles the game, and his decision making in games are always top notch.

You can argue that he shouldn't have taken out Lackey in Game 5 when he did, but it was a fair enough choice to make. Of the 38 HR Tex had hit that season, 30 were from the leftside. Scioscia wanted to turn him around with the left-handed Darren Oliver, who was having probably the best season of his career. I mean the guy made 63 appearances and had about a 2.50 ERA. Although he got robbed of a K that turned into a walk, Lackey was getting a little wild, throwing a bunch of first pitch balls. In hindsight, obviously the decision looks bad, but I think it was just bad luck. Darren Oliver happened to have his worst stuff on the night that it would be magnified the most. Otherwise, the guy had been awesome for us in the series. Probably our best reliever.

I don't think anyone really had much faith in Fuentes, but not pitching him in the 9th of that game 5 sends a clear negative message to him and the rest of the team. If you don't use him for what you signed him for in the offseason than how do you ever restore any faith in him at any other point during the playoffs, or even next season? Charlie Manuel had a similar dilemma with Brad Lidge having terrible stuff in the year, but he had to go with his established closer. That's unavoidable.

Don't forget that it was Scioscia who called that pitch-out that knocked down the baserunner who would have been the go-ahead run on that Rodriguez HR in game 3. It was Scioscia who kept in Mathis in extra innings when he could have been lifted for a pinch runner. The thing that I love about him is that he shows confidence in his guys, even when they show signs of struggling.

When was this most evident? With Guerrero looking horrid in that game 2 loss, I was the first one to say that he should be knocked down in the lineup. Instead, Scioscia sticks with Guerrero, who all of a sudden shows some patience and starts taking balls in his at-bats, and ends up having by far the most productive postseason of any of our players. The guy hit almost .400 in the ALCS, and how many clutch at bats did he have? The inning changing walk in Game 3 versus Boston. The series winning hit in the same game. The game tying home run in Game 3. The guy finally woke up when it counted most, which is a lot more than can be said for just about anyone else in that lineup.

The thing about that ALCS was that it never felt like we were in control of any of the games. Last year I was more upset about losing because I really thought we were a better team than the Red Sox, we just caught some bad breaks. But in this series, the games we won, we were scratching to either get back in or hold the lead. Nothing ever felt safe for us, so I feel like the better team won. It's never fun to lose, but I think it's easier to concede when you know that the other guys are legit.

The Yankees team they faced was a good one, but still a far cry from being the force that they were in the late 90s. Those guys were seriously invincible. This team is the beneficiary of one superstar starting pitcher, the best reliever of all time, and a couple of future HOFers who had a good series, but they showed tons of chinks in their armor. Beyond Sabbathia, their starting pitching is very questionable, and that bullpen relief leading up to Rivera did not hold it together against an Angels team that was slumping offensively at the wrong time. The thing is, the Phillies seem to have the same vulnerabilities, but I think I like their lineup more, plus they have the pedigree of winning it all last season. Also, I think Joe Girardi's tendency to over-manage is going to catch up at some point.

In any case, I feel good about this upcoming offseason. Although I've lost my faith completely in Scott Kazmir, Reagins has been able to swing some amazing deals that have brought us great returns. He got Torii Hunter to sign with us in a Del Taco. He replaced Tex with Abreu. He made the deal for Texeira in the first place, and then the deal for Kazmir which was looking good until the guy decided to explode in the playoffs. With Stoneman you never had much hope for anything working out, but Reagins gets it done. We have an awesome owner, an active GM, and one of the best managers in baseball. You can't overestimate the value of a stable and solid front office. Trust me. This is coming from a Raiders fan. I know dysfunction all too well.

With several years of success under our belts, now the Angels are becoming a destination team where players want to come and sign with us because we know how to win. Even with all of the potential departures, I feel confident in the guys we have going for us. I'm sad about them losing, and not fulfilling the movie plot storyline of winning it all for Nick, I think this season exceeded my expectations. 2009 was a good year and lines us up well for great years to come.

Winning Is Everything

A friend of mine invited me to play on this intramural soccer team with a bunch of former BYU players. That should have been my first red-flag right there. Now, I don't know if this is as common with the other team sports at BYU because I haven't had a chance to affiliate with any other guys, but the BYU soccer players (guys) are mostly really pretentious jerks. The only guy who I know wasn't like that was from home, but everyone else...very much so. Dave and I lived with one of the other guys, and we knew a bunch of other ones.

Oh wait...get ready for long parenthetical aside:

(There was one guy that I loved to death. Dave, you remember, Tommy, who did that bird dance after he scored. I had a total man-crush on him. One time when we had a hot cocoa loco at our apartment, he came with Jeff, and he and I talked for an hour and had what I think is a common moment for guys in their mid-20s - you have a ton in common and under different circumstances you'd be great friends, but now you're old enough and far enough along in your college career that you already have your group of friends, and if you were both freshman or just back from your mission, it's still pretty easy to form guy-guy friendships, but after that there is no casual way to ask for another dude's phone number just to hang out without some other excuse and not feel totally weird about it. That was my Tommy moment. You had me at hot cocoa, Tommy, you had me at...)

Anyway, so in our first game together the captain of our team has us huddle up and gives this speech about how everyone is out to get us and how we need to come out and kick everyone's trash, and and...then we lost, handily, 5-2. We were never in that one. But the next one would be different because we really hate these...5-4. Well, this next week will be different because the other team is all former BYU guys too and they...9-3. But I'm sure that everyone we're playing against is writing down the brand of cleats and apparel that you're wearing, and looking at the sidelines at your girlfriends and wishing they were you. Right...

That's how I was feeling the whole season. I even opted out of the 9-3 game because I wanted to see how they'd fare without using me as excuse of why we're losing because I happen to be one of the three or so guys who didn't play BYU soccer. So what if I was secretly happy that they got creamed without me?

Then I came back from California and the next weekend we had a game. I was going to avoid playing, but said I would if we were short on players. We were, so I played. And then a funny thing happened. We won. Not only did we win, but Mike and I both scored some really awesome goals. All of a sudden EVERYTHING changed. Suddenly, these guys weren't total d-bags. And maybe I hadn't really given them a chance (well, except for that guy, I'm pretty sure he's always a jerk). In any case, we won and everything changed. The sun was shining, birds were singing, and soccer was fun again.

Joy of victory
I think it's funny how much of a difference it makes, winning v. losing. When we went to the divisional playoff game against the Red Sox, I was glowing afterward. Couldn't have been happier that evening. It just made me laugh to think how different that night would have felt if the Angels had lost. And now with this soccer team, it's the exact same thing.

It used to be that when I would lose, or my team would lose, I would be really deeply affected. When my brother beat me in Streetfighter II, I threw the controller at our sliding glass door. When the Raiders lost the Super Bowl, I wanted to strangle these two obnoxious girls who were the only ones rooting for the Bucs because no one else was. It was easy for anyone else present to see how visibly upset I was. In some ways, I guess I still get pretty upset. When I play soccer at home at the church, I'll kick or throw the trash can or yell. I like to think that I don't get pissy with the people around me, but I don't know how they respond to my reaction. I used to swear out loud, but now that I'm a church-going boy, I just swear in my head, except for dammits and hells. Those still come out sometimes.

Agony of defeat. Same game as the one pictured above, which was the best college football game I've ever seen. EVER.
Anyway, this was a tough sports weekend. A friend of mine invited me to the BYU v. TCU game, but I was 90% sure they would get creamed, so I opted out of that one. After beating the Eagles last week, I thought the Raiders had a good shot against the Jets at home. I came home with eager anticipation after church to see the score was...38-0, bad guys. Ouch. No matter, my Angels would force a game 7, right? Right? No? Damn.

But I'm proud to say that no one who interacted with me this weekend had any idea that I was constantly aware of each frustrating score. If you were at ward prayer last night, you wouldn't have had any inkling that I realized the Angels had chipped away one run off their deficit against the best closer in baseball history to crawl back in the game, only to give back two more runs in the bottom half of the 8th to seal their fate.

Winning can make a weekend or night out great. Winning turns enemies into friends. The nice thing now is that losing just makes me change the channel, go to the church activity I probably shouldn't have been avoiding anyway, or just look forward to the start of the next sports season where my hopes and dreams have yet to be crushed and I can look forward to a season of promise.

With that, ladies and gentlemen, your 2009-2010 defending champions Los Angeles Lakers!


(Thank heavens for that championship. I can get by for at least another couple years on that one. More on the Angels later, Dave and Kent.)

Obama: Wholly Lacking In Grace

There have been a lot of things in the past week or two worldwide that have really gotten under my skin. At the forefront of those many different items has been the White House's assault on Fox News and his predecessor, George W. Bush.

While speaking to an audience of clear supporters, Obama made the following comments:


My guy, Jay Nordlinger, made the following comments that you can find in this post in The Corner over at NRO:

Barack Obama is pretty interesting when he gets in front of his money-givers — his biggest fans, I guess. In New York, he said, “Democrats are an opinionated bunch. You know, the other side, they just kinda sometimes do what they’re told. Democrats, y’all thinkin’ for yourselves.” Last year, in San Francisco, he said of Middle Americans, “It’s not surprising . . . they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them . . .”

O’s New York commentary reminded me of the notorious Washington Post line, that conservative Christians are “largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command.” When you think about it, Obama has a pretty easy time commanding people — millions of them, including important people in media and academia. Including, almost, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee! But some of us, he cannot command — and he seems not to like or respect us all that much.

Long ago, I grew tired of the conceit that Democrats think for themselves, while the rest of us just take orders from some politburo: composed of Rush, Fox, and whoever. All my life, I’ve heard Democrats quote an old Will Rogers line: “I belong to no organized party, I’m a Democrat.” Ha, ha, ha! Oh, aren’t we grand, we Democrats? We beautiful, smart, unorganizable Democrats! Well, Rogers may have had it right at one time; but in my own time, the Democrats have been a pretty disciplined bunch — and pretty ruthless, when it comes to dissent. When it comes to odd-men-out.

I have 30 more things to say, of course, but here’s one more: Do you recall President Bush insulting Democrats, as Obama has insulted us, explicitly? Sometimes our post-partisan president can be a rather nasty piece of work.

Rich Lowry had the following to say about Obama's campaign in this article:

In international forums, Obama acts as if Bush were the former president of another country, or a disgraced former leader ousted in a coup. No calumny is too much to heap on him, and no defense is ever offered. Obama might at least avoid implicitly accusing his predecessor of war crimes. He might at least credit his predecessor’s, and his country’s, good intentions in toppling Saddam Hussein and promoting democracy in the Middle East. No, he’s incapable of it.

Obama should be grateful that Bush ordered the surge in Iraq against Obama’s opposition. If he hadn’t, Obama likely would have — on top of everything else — inherited a strategically central Middle Eastern country in full-scale civil war. Does Obama express any appreciation, or any humility about his own mistaken call? Of course not.

But his aides blame Bush for the state of the Afghan War, which White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel says was adrift “for eight years.” If the war was under-resourced, the complaining about Bush has the whiff of pre-emptive excuse-making should Obama pull up short in his “necessary war.” We would send Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan only if Bush hadn’t already lost the war.

When Obama first burst on the scene, he seemed to respect the other side. That refreshing Obama is long gone. Now, he impugns his immediate predecessor with classless regularity, and attributes the worst of motives — pure partisanship and unrestrained greed — to those who oppose him. Their assigned role is to get the hell out of his way.

The acid test of the White House inevitably exposes a president’s character flaws: Nixon’s corrosive paranoia, Clinton’s self-destructive indiscipline, Bush’s stubborn defensiveness. Obama in the crucible is exhibiting an oddly self-pitying arrogance. It’s unbecoming in anyone, let alone the most powerful man on the planet.

And Lowry highlights at length what I think is so unbecoming of our President - he's a lion feeding at a carcass, but worried about the flies that also smell the rotting flesh. The most powerful man in the free world feels it necessary to not only constantly defend himself against criticism, but demean anyone who opposes him. Recently, it has even come to the extent of belittling a news network that has found fault with him. Fox News is a drop compared to the sea of other media sources that only praise the O, but he's so threatened that his entire White House staff sees fit to attempt to marginalize the network.

Just a few days ago, the administration attempted a boycott of Fox News:

At first, there was little reaction from other media. Then on Thursday, the administration tried to make them complicit in an actual boycott of Fox. The Treasury Department made available Ken Feinberg, the executive pay czar, for interviews with the White House "pool" news organizations -- except Fox. The other networks admirably refused, saying they would not interview Feinberg unless Fox was permitted to as well. The administration backed down.

The author of the above article, Charles Krauthammer goes on to say in this newspaper article:

This was an important defeat because there's a principle at stake here. While government can and should debate and criticize opposition voices, the current White House goes beyond that. It wants to delegitimize any significant dissent. The objective is no secret. White House aides openly told Politico that they're engaged in a deliberate campaign to marginalize and ostracize recalcitrants, from Fox to health insurers to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

There's nothing illegal about such search-and-destroy tactics. Nor unconstitutional. But our politics are defined not just by limits of legality or constitutionality. We have norms, Madisonian norms.

Madison argued that the safety of a great republic, its defense against tyranny, requires the contest between factions or interests. His insight was to understand "the greater security afforded by a greater variety of parties." They would help guarantee liberty by checking and balancing and restraining each other -- and an otherwise imperious government.

Factions should compete, but also recognize the legitimacy of other factions and, indeed, their necessity for a vigorous self-regulating democracy. Seeking to deliberately undermine, delegitimize and destroy is not Madisonian. It is Nixonian.

Representative Eric Cantor (R-Va.) also comments in this post on the subject:

This episode is about much more than just Fox News. Today, the administration’s target is Fox; tomorrow, it could be someone else. The administration apparently feels entitled to receive friendly (or what it subjectively deems “balanced”) news coverage at a time when it is making monumental decisions that will have sweeping consequences for years to come. Its heavy-handed treatment of Fox is unseemly in a democracy that depends on the free flow of information. Even commentators and journalists from other rival networks have expressed alarm.

Friction between the media and the elected officials they cover is inevitable. I know this from experience. But lawmakers and the executive branch should be able to agree that going after individual news organizations for no other reason than to sully their reputations (oddly enough, the administration’s clash with Fox will only increase the latter’s profile) is not good for our nation. President Obama should know better. He is above this.

As the White House bickers with a cable-news network, the challenges facing America grow more formidable by the day. Since January, millions of Americans have lost their jobs. Our military commanders say we risk losing the war in Afghanistan unless we boost troop levels; and our military men and women risk their lives each day waiting for a decision from their commander in chief. And a flood of new government spending threatens to blow a hole in the national debt, devalue the dollar, and place an insurmountable burden upon our children and grandchildren.

Freedom of the press is a celebrated right that has shaped our society for more than 200 years. Accordingly, tough scrutiny by the media is something all administrations should expect and accept. Our nation faces many difficult challenges, and the White House should be focused on the truly pressing issues that require our prompt attention.

Obama should be above all of this behavior, but evidently, he's not.

Keep On Keepin' On

I don't much care for door-to-door salesmen as I documented in this blog post almost two years ago. (Incidentally, last year after running the marathon a black kid from Detroit was wandering my neighborhood selling magazine subscriptions, and of course I ended up buying one. How much was it? Almost $40 for a one year subscription to Runner's World. How many issues did I actually receive? One. Exactly 1. Then I could never get a hold of anyone who could help me receive the rest of my subscription. How much can you get a year's subscription for online? $12 for a full year. But I was also helping this kid pay his way for college, so I was actually benefiting society by helping him find a better path, right?)

Anyhow, what I always welcome are community activists, whether it's something political or religious. And I don't much care if the person is preaching the same religion as my own, or if the petition that they want signed is something that conflicts with my own views, I just always admire when a person believes in something enough to go and talk to complete strangers about it. I may not accept the copy of the Watchtower, or sign the petition, but I always always always try and be as friendly and encouraging as possible to whomever it is that comes to my door. I guess it's because I've been on the receiving end both as a missionary and as a salesman, and even with the Prop 8 stuff, and it's never an easy thing.

This morning I had a nice little Jehovah's Witness come to my door talking about the Holy Ghost and what a wonderful thing it is. He was dressed in a suit and tie, and spoke haltingly, the nervousness evident in his voice and his posture. I just wanted to give him a hug and thank him for caring enough to come and share his message with me, even if I don't necessarily agree. It's something significant that someone would bother to dedicate time out of their day, get dressed in their Sunday best, and want to help steer me onto what they believe in their hearts is a good path.

What bothers me is not when someone has a different view point than my own, but when people are indifferent, ambivalent, or lukewarm. Sometimes people are misguided, but at least they care, and they're trying to do what they think is right, and that definitely counts for something.

It really is a scary thing to knock on someone's door and know that more than likely, whatever it is that you have to offer will not be well received. As a missionary, it goes from being something you dread to something you love because you've become so battle-tested. Knocking on someone's door is so personal because you're wanting to invade their space, and also because what you bring with you is probably so deeply personal.

I didn't end up taking his copies of the Watchtower, but I wished him well, told him he was doing a good thing and that I hoped he had a great day. Not entirely sure why, but it just warms my heart when a person is willing to step out of their comfort zone for something they believe in.

H8 The Mormons: A New Documentary

I'm sure you all will love this. I love quotes taken out of context. Those comments made by President Monson or Elder Ballard could be talking about church organization helping out flood victims just as easily as it could be talking about our political efforts. And those people making the especially inflammatory comments are not church representatives, and probably aren't even members of the church.

Let's get something straight - religious entities have every right to endorse ballot measures that they see having a moral bearing. Do you not get the logic to that? And do you all understand what a massive difference it is to support a law or ballot measure as opposed to supporting a candidate? The point of separation of church and state doesn't have to do with religion exerting too much influence on laws going into effect as much as it does on the people upholding and enacting those laws, the politicians. It's completely different. A religion has every right to voice its opinion about moral issues, but it's a different matter when churches endorse candidates because of the potential influence that they can have in the actions of those candidates. Make sense? And besides, the idea of church and state is completely befuddled now as compared to what it once was.

This boils my blood. In the words of Cypress Hill, "here is something you can't understand..."