Upon Quick Updates

Still enjoying my vacation, but I am here to provide a few updates.

Islamic terrorists struck the city of London, and the estimated death toll currently stands at 50, with many more injured. I am quite concerned that it is only a matter of time before someone on the more fanatic end of the American/English side decides to begin responding in kind, in an eye-for-an-eye tactic. If innocent people are butchered in the US, England, Iraq...etc, what is to stop one of these people from butchering in return? I am sure the argument can be made that this is already being done through the sanctioned military actions our armed forces are taking, but these terrorists are not military personnel (to my knowledge). What if an Englishman who lost his family decides to construct a bomb, drive to a local mosque, and detonate his explosive "to strike back at the terrorists"? He certainly would be horribly wrong, and would not be accomplishing his purported goal. However, this is exactly what the terrorists are doing. By exploding a bomb in the subways of London, you are not striking those who oppose you. You do deal a blow to the leaders of these nations by slaughtering their people, but you do nothing to encourage toward your views. Most of these groups do not even succeed in getting their view across. We hear a muddled bit of information regarding their desire for troop pull-out, but these cowards will not identify themselves or thier organization. They bring no agenda to the negotiating table, they only mindlessly kill themselves and others. These actions are misdirected, and though I can not claim to have any moral authority in the matter, I do not believe that the Islamic conception of God rewards murder any more than my own Catholic God. I feel that this will expand into a Christian v Muslim conflict in time, and that many more innocents will die than if a rational foe were in the mix. People who do not value their own life can not be fought as would an enemy who cares about himself and others. No one wants to see a repeat of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nor do we want to live in the locked-down America which we would have to live to prevent an atoricity on our soil. Something must be done about Islamic fanaticism, and terrorist bombings, and examples may have to be made of soverigns and states.


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Having Derek Jeter miss the All-Star game is another interesting case. The fans were allowed to vote in the starters for the game, as well as one of a group of 5 remaining players on a "last-man ballot". The coaches for the teams select the remainder of the players. Somehow, a campaign arose to get Scott Posednik into the game as that last man, leaving out Jeter and Matsui. Below you will find the stats to date for all 3: (courtesy of ESPN.com)

RK PLAYER TEAM AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB BA OBP SLG OPS
13 Hideki Matsui NYY 316 55 100 23 1 13 66 2 0 38 .316 .383 .519 .902

25 Derek Jeter NYY 329 67 101 11 2 11 36 10 3 40 .307 .393 .453 .846

Scott Podsednik CWS 270 48 78 13 0 0 17 41 9 32 .289 .363 .337 .700

Now for me, Seeing that Jeter and Matsui have better numbers IN EVERY STATISTICAL CATEGORY BUT STOLEN BASES, I would think that they might deserve the spot above Scott. Also, given Matsui's immense popularity in Japan, and Jeter's status as among the most popular players in baseball, you might go for them in that regard. But, you ask, shouldn't their popularity have gotten them voted in? I believe that it should have, but along with splitting the NY vote, NY hate contributed to holding these guys out. I still contend that no one will watch the game to see Scott Posednik come off the bench in the 6th inning, but people would have tuned in from the beginning for Jeter and Matsui. Numbers dont lie, statistical or ratings.