The SoapBoxers

Sadness

The saddest sports story of the week was the death of 22 year old Angels pitch Nick Adenhart at the hands of a repeat offender drunk driver who had a blood alcohol level nearly triple the legal limit, was driving 65 mph in a 35 mph zone, and ran a red light.  Courtney Stewart, driver of the car Adenhart was riding in, and Henry Pearson, a passenger in that car, also died in the accident.  Another passenger in that car, John Wilhite, remains hospitalized.

Announcer Harry Kalas and former pitcher Mark “The Bird” Fidrych also died this week.

Oddness

The strangest sports story was probably the truck driver who stole $43,000 worth of ketchup that was supposed to go to Fenway Park for opening day.  The driver was upset at his employer, and intentionally drove the load to the wrong location.  It turns out that he was on probation, so this little stunt is not going to have a happy ending for him.

NCAAs

Tyler Hansbrough struck a blow for the kids who decided to stay in college four years, bring home a title to North Carolina.  Like him or dislike him, you have to respect his decision to stay in school.  A lot of people are questioning his ability to succeed at the next level.  Only time will tell.  One thing for certain, though, is that he will not fail for lack of effort.

Rockies

Troy Tulowitzki , determined to shake off the negative memory of 2007, belted homers in each of the first two games for the Rockies (and added a third on Saturday).  Tulo is my favorite active player.  Rookie Dexter Fowler hit a lead off homer on Wednesday, the first in a long march toward Rickey Henderson’s record for leadoff home runs.

Baseball

CC Sabathia got shelled in his Yankees debut, reminding many people of his rough start to the 2008 season, allowing 6 runs in 4 1/3 innings.  Sabathia promptly rebounded in his second start, hurling 7 2/3 innings of scoreless ball.  Sabathia has all the talent in the world, but a late season slump would not surprised me.  He has piled up a ton of innings over he last few years, and his body frame can best be described as “Ruthian”.

NFL

The Detroit Lions are on the clock for the NFL draft.  Some experts are saying that they are locked on Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford, but others aren’t sure.  Some believe that there is not a consensus in the Lions front office that Stafford in even the best quarterback in the draft.  This would reflect the thinking around the NFL, where observers are split between Stafford and USC quarterback Mark Sanchez.  I even heard one person suggest that the Lions could let their time run out, which would allow the Rams to jump ahead of them and make their pick.  At that point, the Lions would then make their own pick, which they could then argue was the #2 pick.  Why would they do this?  For financial reason.  #1 picks make substantially more money than #2 picks, and if the Lions are confident that the Rams won’t snap up the guy they way, this could make sense.  It’s a risky move, though, and I don’t see it happening.

For those of you who are paying attention, I am going to swap the news and sports days.  News will be on Mondays, Sports on Tuesday.

Minnesota Senate

I have already lampooned this situation once, but this election continues to be contested.  Al Franken leads Norm Coleman by 312 votes.  Coleman is very likely to appeal to the Minnesota supreme court, and if he loses there, the US Supreme Court (although I’m not sure why the SCOTUS would hear a case that appears to be fundamentally a state issue).

I’m not going to put one party at fault.  If Franken was 312 votes behind, it is likely that he would be following the same steps.  However, as months and possibly years go by as this election is sorted out, Minnesota will be have only one US Senator.  It would be beneficial for the citizens of Minnesota if a quick solution could be hammered out, although I am not sure what that solution would be.

Palin / Johnston

Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston, the father of her child, recently broke up.  Certainly that is unfortunate.  What is even worse is that the Johnstons and Palins have been taking pot shots at each other in the media.  Come on, folks, let’s keep the dirty laundry behind closed doors.

Gay Marriage

Last week, the supreme court in my home state of Iowa struck down a legislative ban on gay marriage.  Iowa is the first state outside of New England to legalize gay marriage.  Republicans in the legislature would like to add a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage (which would invalidate the Court’s opinion that the existing law was unconstitutional).  This is not likely to happen for a while, though.  Such an bill would have to be passed in two consecutive sessions of the legislature before being place on the ballot.  The majority leaders seem to not be interested in pursuing such a course of action.

In Vermont, the legislature legalized gay marriage.  This is the first instance of a legislature, rather than a state court, legalizing gay marriage.  The bill had broad support in the legislature, as they needed to override a gubernatorial veto.

I personally applaud these decision.s  Many people say that this will tear apart the fabric of traditional marriage.  I disagree.  Divorce and domestic violence are the problems that are tearing apart the fabric of traditional marriage.  I have come to believe that sexual orientation is largely a biological issue.  I do not believe that the vast majority of gays choose that orientation.  If it was a matter of choice, why would people choose a path that is filled with so much hatred and so many obstacles?  Recent polls show that public support for gay marriage and civil unions is on the rise; I feel that it is a matter of time before gay marriage is legal in all states (although it may taken a few more decades).

On Thursday, I was fighting a virus and trying to get some much needed sleep.  Thursday morning,  my sleep was disrupted three times by the phone.  The first call was from my dentist’s office, which had not received the message I had left the previous night, informing them that I needed to cancel my appointment.  I was OK with this disruption, as it was a legitimate call.  

The other two disruptions were from telemarketers, and I was not OK with those disruptions.

The first call was from some company promising to lower my credit card interest rate.  I have repeatedly asked these scammers not to call back and told them they are in violation of the “Do Not Call” list.  However, their business must be very profitable and allow them to easily pay the FCC fines, as they continue to call back.  How do I know that they are not affiliated with one of my credit cards?  One time in the past, I asked which bank they were affiliated with.  After evasive answers (“We represent Mastercard and Visa”) they were unable to name a specific issuing bank. 

The next call was from congressman Steve King of Iowa’s 5th congressional district.  Steve’s robocall wanted me to participate in a survey.  I didn’t stay on the line to determine what the survey was actually about.  I have a pretty good guess, though, and if I am correct, it is an issue on which I do not agree with Steve.

The more disturbing aspect of the call, however, is that fact that I am not in Steve’s district.  I am not even close to being in Steve’s district.  I am really not sure why he would waste his resources calling me.  I’m curious how Steve’s constituents would react if they knew that he was using the resources of their district to make annoying telemarketing calls to voters whom he does not represent, instead of focusing those resources on something that could help his district?  I’d bet that some of them would accurately deem this to be wasteful government spending.

Friday featured a lovely call from a lady who seemed quite clueless about the “Do not call” list.  She said that I wasn’t on their list, but that she would add us.  When I clarified that the DNC list was a list maintained by the federal government, she proceeded to treat ME like the idiot, asking what part of her comment I didn’t understand.  My further attempts to educate her were cut off when she hung up.  Seriously, we don’t actually have telemarketers who are unaware of the DNC list, do we?  Not surprisingly, no information was available via call ID.

What can we do about telemarketing calls?  First, I would eliminate the computerized “robocalls”.  Either pay to have someone staff the phone lines (creating jobs) or don’t bother making the call.

Second, force politicians to abide by the “Do Not Call” list, or create some other way to allow voters to opt out of these calls.  Political calls are the worst sort of telemarketing calls; why should they be exempt?

Note that some states have taken positive steps toward these two goals.  More states must follow.

Finally, I am in favor of charging telemarketers a fee for each unsolicited call they make (even those that are not forbidden by the “Do Not Call” list).  This fee would be credited to the account of the phone number that is called.  This would be a nice way to compensate people for the annoyance of the call.  If telemarketers feel that this would make their business unprofitable, then perhaps they could spend some effort targeting their audience more affectively, rather than using a “shotgun” approach.

Today’s edition of Fiction Friday features a short children’s story about Ferdinand the Turtle.

When he was young, Ferdinand the Turtle did not like his name. He was a small turtle, and the name was too big for small turtle. The other turtles made fun of him, because his name was bigger than he was! Ferdinand asked them to call him Ferdie the Turtle for short, but they would not. Everyone called him Ferdinand the Turtle.

Eventually, Ferdinand grew into his name. Ferdinand became a big turtle. In fact, he became king of Turtle Island. Ferdinand was a very good king. His generosity was known far and wide. Everyone on Turtle Island loved Ferdinand.

Ferdinand’s best friend was Bob the Squirrel. When he was very small, Bob had fallen asleep in a packing crate and had been shipped to Turtle Island by accident. Ferdinand quickly befriended the misplaced squirrel. Ferdinand and Bob had lots of fun playing together. They would climb trees, swim, and ride around in Ferdinand’s red wagon.

When Ferdinand became king of Turtle Island, he quickly hired Bob to be his gofer. The greatly confused Bob, who thought that Ferdinand was hiring him as a gopher – and Bob was a squirrel, not a gopher. But the pay was pretty good, and the work was interesting, so Bob the Squirrel who worked as a gofer did not complain.

The residents of Turtle Island are completely free of income taxes. Many tourists visit Turtle Island to see the weekly parades, and a small hotel/motel tax completely supports the government of the island.

Turtle Island has parades every Wednesday. People from everyone around Turtle Nation to see the parades. The schools and factories are all closed on Wednesday so that everyone can see the parade. Lots of candy is thrown out to the little turtles watching the parade.

Rookie Angels pitches Nick Adenhart, 22, was killed in a car accident shortly after midnight on Thursday morning.  Adenhart had pitched six shutout innings on Wednesday night, just hours before the accident.  The car that Adenhart was riding in was hit broadside by a drunk driver who ran a red the light.  The driver, who fled the scene, had a suspended license as a result of a previous drunk driving conviction.

Adenhart had quite a few fans in eastern Iowa because he pitched for the Cedar Rapids Kernels in 2006.  His 10-2 record and 1.95 ERA that year made him understandably popular.  Even after he departed from the Kernels, his achievements would make the local news occasionally – sort of a “local boy makes good” (in spite of the fact that he didn’t grow up around here.

On April 28, 1787, Fletcher Christian led the crew of the HMS Bounty in a mutiny against Captain William Bligh. Bligh and those loyal to him were set adrift on a small boat. Bligh was eventually able to report the mutiny to British authorities.

In an effort to evade the British navy, Christian and eight other crew members, along with some Tahitians who had been kidnapped, settled on the remote Pitcairn Island. After landing on Pitcairn Island, the Bounty was intentionally burned, marooning everyone on this remote island.

Incredibly, Pitcairn Island is still populated by the descendants of the mutineers. The population swelled from twenty seven people who originally landed on the island until the population threatened to outgrow the island in the 1850s (Pitcairn Island is just 1.75 square miles in size). In fact, the entire population moved to relatively close Norfolk Island (only a five week trip by boat). Within a few years, many of these people moved back to Pitcairn Island, and the population grew once again, peaking at 233 in 1937. Today, the population hovers around fifty, as many residents have chosen to emigrate off the island.

Pitcairn Island is as inaccessible as a place can be in this current age. It is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and does not have an airstrip or a harbor that is suitable for ships. Anything that needs to be transferred is transferred via a longboat, which travels from the island to a nearby ship. Visitors from smaller boats visit the island occasionally, as well.

Pitcairn exports honey and handcrafted items. A rather significant segment of the island’s revenue comes from the sale of postage stamps to collectors as well as domain registrations under the .pn top level domain. People can also subscribe to the local newspaper, either online or in print. The printed edition can take a while to arrive. Interestingly, all of the homes on the island have internet access (a single satellite connection that is networked to all the houses).

The stories from Pitcairn are not all happy, of course. There are reports that sexual promiscuity is common and that men engage is sex with very young girls – and that these things have been occurring for a very long period of time. In 2004, seven men from Pitcairn were put on trial for rape and other charges. Six of the men were found guilty. Five of them have subsequently been released to home detention.

So the next time you’re thinking of a trip to a remote location, swing by Pitcairn Island and tell them I sent you!  If you’re trying to get away from the rat race, there are very few options that are better.

Wikipedia was a source for this article.

America’s first family of comedy is being formally recognized by the government.  The Simpsons will be featured on postage stamps.  The stamp design will be unveiled on April 9.

The Simpsons debuted on the Tracy Ulman show in 1987.  The Simpsons broke free as their own TV show in December of 1989 and have won dozens of Emmys and billions of other awards since their debut.  When the show first came out, its irreverent humor received quite a bit of criticism.  It’s funny – if you watch one of the early shows now, it’s often difficult to determine which aspects could have been so offensive.  It’s also cool to watch the older shows to observe the quality of the animation.  The images and voices have improved a lot over the years  – they were fairly rough in the early years.

We didn’t have Fox when I was growing up (just the three networks and Iowa Public Television, since those were the only stations the antenna picked up).  I started seeing the show on a regular basis when I was in college, and I have been a huge fan ever since.  I don’t see a lot of the new episodes, simply because I have really gotten out of the TV habit.  I wasn’t blown away by the movie, although we finally figure out which states border Springfield – Ohio, Nevada, Maine, and Kentucky.

I consider The Simpsons to be a wonderful social commentary on life.  Negative actions typically have negative consequences.  Moe and Mr. Burns, for example, do not have the happiest lives (in fact, when Mr. Burns gets shot, everyone had a motive).  Of course, it’s also hilarious.

The Simpsons also does a great job of parodying others shows and movies.   I can remember one episode in particular.  Grandpa Simpson goes to a church to break up the wedding of the woman he loved.  A couple of years later, I was watching The Graduate (honestly, not terribly impressed) and saw Dustin Hoffman do the exact same thing.  My mind immediately yelled “hey, they ripped that off from The Simpsons.”

D’Oh.  Maybe it was the other way around.

Keep an eye out for these stamps when they come out.  Rarely have we had the opportunity to invest 44 cents more wisely.

Gerrymandering

There will be gubernatorial elections in 38 states in 2009 and 2010. This is causing great happiness or sorrow among hard core party members, depending on the situation.

Why the big fuss?

In 2010, states will redraw district lines as a result of the census. Some states will lose members of the US House of Representatives, other will gain members, and some will simply redraw lines to balance the number of residents in each district.

Sounds incredibly straightforward and boring, huh?

Unfortunately, there is a lot of politics inside the art of redrawing the lines. If the governor is from the same party as the party that controls the state legislature, they can basically redraw the lines in any manner they see fit, and there’s not much the minority party can do.

The key is to consolidate the constituents of your opponent into as few districts as possibly. Let’s take an example state that has 100 voters and 10 congressional districts. 60 are party A, 40 are party B. If the voters are equally dispersed among the districts, party A would win 6-4 in every district and thus all of the states representatives in the US House would be from party A.

Let’s mix those voters up bit.

District 1: 10 A, 0 B
District 2: 10 A, 0 B
District 3: 10 A, 0 B
District 4: 6 A, 4 B
District 5: 4 A, 6 B
District 6: 4 A, 6 B
District 7: 4 A, 6 B
District 8: 4 A, 6 B
District 9: 4 A, 6 B
District 10: 4 A, 6 B

By pushing half of the party A voters into districts 1-3, party B created a situation where they hold an advantage in 6 of the 10 districts!

Obviously, in the real word, it isn’t quite that blatant. But politicians do draw some funny looking districts in an attempt to minimize the impact of the opponents.  The name Gerrymander is in “honor” of Elbridge Gerry who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1810-1812.  Some of the districts drawn during his tenure resembled a salamander.  Gerry + salamander = gerrymander.

I loathe this practice nearly as much as I hate filibusters. I don’t know if there is a perfect solution, but I would propose creating a bipartisan commission to draw the boundaries – half of the members would be from each party. They would be forced to agree on a compromise (which, in theory, should be a map that is fair to both parties).

And if they refuse to agree? They would not be allowed to hold the next scheduled house race until the situation was resolved. A situation could be created where a state did not have representation for a period of time. Can you imagine the impact if a state like Texas or California was unable to seat representatives? My hope would be that the fear of backlash from voters would be enough to force a compromise.

Note: this is the second post of Monday.  Scroll down to see the sports update post.

Some of you may be wonder about the identity of the benevolent soul who is allowing me to use some of his server space.  It is none other than Lazy Man of LazyManAndMoney.com.  If you haven’t been to his site, check it out.  He blogs about personal finance (and his beloved Red Sox and Patriots) from his own unique perspective.  There’s a good bit of humor, which is always a good thing.

Lazy Man also helped with several technical issues related to the setup.  Meaning that he did the setup and then troubleshot anything weird that happened.  Lazy has also provided a lot of useful information over the past few months.  To be honest, I probably wouldn’t be writing this blog if it wasn’t for him.  I had pretty much abandoned my writing for a decade.  It was his encouragement – and his own success – that caused me to launch the blog.

There is some news stuff on the blog:

In order to leave comments, you will need to put in a name and email address.  No, I am not collecting the addresses for anything (ugh, I would NEVER do that), and they will not be displayed along with your comments.  If you want a cool picture displayed with your comments, register at Gravatar.com.  You register your email address and then choose a picture to use as your avatar.  Then, any time you leave comments at a Gravatar-enabled site (and there are plenty) your image will be displayed.  (Note – the avatar is tied to your email address, not your name).

One more new thing.  You will start seeing “related websites” at the bottom of each article.  This is the result of a “plug-in” I am using that searches other blogs for related content.  I don’t have any control over the sites that are displayed, but I hope you enjoy the sites that are displayed.  Some of them might provide further evidence of a point I am making; others might completely contradict me.  For those of you who are WordPress bloggers, the plug-in is “Blog Traffic Exchange” and can be downloaded from http://www.blogtrafficexchange.com/related-websites/

Today is the official start of the baseball season (although most teams begin games tomorrow). I have been waiting for this day since October. While most of you are watching the NCAA championship game tonight, I’ll be watching baseball.

First, let me provide a link to my earlier post of some of the best baseball web sites, in case you missed it. If you didn’t see this when it was initially posted, do yourself a favor and take a look at it now.

My Colorado Rockies have decided to keep top prospect CF Dexter Fowler with the big club to begin the year. I’m a big fan of Dex. He will be a reserve outfielder to begin the year, but hopefully he can play his way into the lineup and stay there. Fowler was a 14th round draft pick in 2004. He would have gone much higher, but he had basketball scholarship offers, and teams were not sue if he would sign a contract if he was drafted (many baseball players are drafted out of high school, and a lot f them decide to attend college rather than sign a pro contract.) The Rockies gambled, drafted him in the 14th round, and offered a signing bonus of $925,000 – much more than the typically bonus for a 14th rounder. So far, this appears to be money well spent.

It appears that Rockies prospect Ian Stewart will not take over the third base job, as Garrett Atkins has not yet been traded. Look for Clint Hurdle to get Stewie’s bat into the lineup often, playing him at 3B, 2B, and OF.

Another guy to watch is catcher Chris Iannetta. If you look at he stat, Iannetta actually had a breakout year in 2008, but a limited number of at bats kept his numbers down. If he can avoid having Yorvit Torrealba vulture some starts, Iannetta could emerge as an elite offensive catcher.

One of my fantasy leagues dried up. This was a bit disappointing, as it was a keeper league, and I had drafted for the long term when the league was created in 2007. My team was looking like it would be a very strong contender for a decade. I suspect that some other GMs came to this realization, and that this is a reason why the league folded.

Other stories from around baseball:

Potential Hall of Famer Gary Sheffield was released by the Tigers with 14M and 1 year left on his contract. Baseball contracts are guaranteed, so Sheffield will make 14M even if he does not play this year. If another teams signs him, they would only have to pay him the league minimum, with the Tigers picking up the bulk of the contract.

Andruw Jones is going to stick with the Texas Rangers. I guess he and hitting coach Rudy Jaramillio have a good thing going. I’m hoping Andruw bounces back after a horrible 2008.

North Carolina will face Michigan State tonight in the NCAA title game. Many people expected UNC to be in the title game; few expected MSU to be. Tyler Hansbrough will try to cap off a tremendous career with a national title, while Michigan State will attempt to get revenge for a savage beating suffered earlier in the year against UNC

Baylor, the subject of an earlier article, fell just one victory short of a championship, falling to Penn State in the NIT title game. Sure, it’s just the NIT, but after everything Baylor has been through, they should be extremely proud of their post-season accomplishments. The coach of the year awards aren’t typically given to the NIT runner-up, but maybe we make an exception this year? Great job, Scott Drew.

The Jay Cutler fiasco is coming to a head. The Broncos were involved in trade discussions for Matt Cassell (Cassell ended up going to the Chiefs) and Cutler has been very upset ever since. The Broncos have now said that they are looking to trade Cutler.

The police officer who detained Texans player Ryan Moats while Moats’ mother-in-law was dying in a hospital has resigned. Yes, Moats ran a red light, but this could have been handled much better. The cop could have taken Moat’s information, told him to report to the police station in he morning, and let him go. Instead, he kept him away from hospital room, despite the pleading of nurses and another cop. During this time, Moat’s mother-in-law died.

Donte Stallworth was charged with vehicular manslaughter after he hit a man with his car. Stallworth says he flashed his lights to warn the man, who was allegedly outside of the crosswalk. Working against Stallworth is a blood alcohol level in excess of the legal limit.

NFL prospect BJ Raji, though to be a top 5-10 pick, will likely slide down the draft board after a positive drug test. This could potentially cost Raji tens of millions of dollars.