Sore muscles in weird places.
I’m enjoying Wii Bowling very much, though.
USA Basketball destroyed Puerto Rico yesterday, winning by 44 points while keeping PR under 100. This was the third highest point total in the pro era of USA Basketball. The Dream Team scored 136 against Cuba in its first game in 1992, and the championship team of 1994 scored 137 in the final against Russia.
And the country yawned, as they should. Given how anti-American the International Olympic Committee is, who cares if we play in Peking next year or not?
A notable criticism of Presidential candidate and Representative eRon Paul is that despite his lengthy tenure in the US Congress, he has achieved nothing significant. His supporters counter that only a left-winger thinks members of Congress can and should be judged by what positive accomplishments they have, rather than the negative rejections they maintain.
While I do agree that the left more than the right benefits from a “pragmatic, getting-things-done” approach to government, it is possible for small-government Republicans to do good. I hold up the 104th Congress of the United States as the perfect example.
A list of notable accomplishments of the 104th Congress (source: Wikipedia)
- National Highway Designation act: repealed 55 mph speed limit.
- Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act: placing sanctions on Cuba and those that deal in property stolen from Americans by the Cuban Communists.
- Line Item Veto Act: Attempted to modify the spending process to favor lower spending.
- Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act: reduced the power of the federal courts to interfere in state law, among other law and order provisions.
- Taxpayer Bill of Rights 2: Reining in the IRS
- Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act: Welfare reform, shifting power from Washington to the states to control state subsidies for the poor.
- Defense of Marriage Act: Preempting federal courts from activism against the definition of marriage.
Of course, the 104th Congress was not perfect. Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was unfortunate, the National Gambling Impact Sutdy Commission Act probably led directly to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act which has cost me money, and the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban reeks of President Clinton and Janet Reno, but to sponsor and pass any of the above listed bills would be a noteworthy accomplishment for a small government conservative Republican.
So no, when we look for a small government leader, saying No is not enough. Saying No merely keeps us in stasis. To roll back government requires positive action, and in that, Ron Paul’s track record is sorely lacking.
Open Arena apparently has some quasi-bugs that let people cheat like mad, zooming around faster than a rocket can travel even, which makes CTF (by far my favorite mode) no fun at all.
Time to look at other such games to see what I can find…
New York City has banned the use of Aluminum bats in youth baseball leagues, saying that the metal bats, and the allegedly greater velocity they can put on the ball, create a greater danger for the pitcher and others at the games. Naturally someone sued, having lost in the legislature, apparently disagreeing with the legislature’s beliefs, and trying just to get it thrown out because it’s unfair. Or something. We all know how people get when they go the the courts to win political fights.
Well, fortunately for the rule of law, the city won in federal court, with the judge saying that the plaintiffs may be true, the City Council has that right to legislate. Who’d have thought?
What’s interesting to me, though, is this quote in this AP passage:
Paul Seiler, executive director of USA Baseball, a Durham, N.C.-based national governing body for several baseball associations that was among plaintiffs, said in a statement that his group fears the ruling “will take a lot of fun out of the game for most high school players.”
“Except for the rare, great ballplayer, it’s harder to hit with wood,” he said.
Is it just me, or did Seiler just admit the city’s case right here?
This one’s for Rob. I don’t have the links, but it just occurred to me that I read two stories recently on Gizmodo that are bringing Back to the Future to life, maybe. First: Nike actually patented those light blue shoes Marty wore in the future in Back to the Future 2. Not the autotying, at least that I know of, but how they look.
Second: the Delorean Motor Company is apparently coming back to life. Or at least, somebody’s going to start manufacturing those famous stainless steel cars with their unusual doors.
Yeah, I watched a game, what do you know? Well, actually I watched part of it, as I happened to turn the game on just in time to see James Loney’s home run to make it 2-0 in the 9th inning, and then Takashi Saito to give up a leadoff walk, then let that run score, in a more exciting than usual save.
Third place, hey hey hey. Still five back, but this hole won’t be climbed out of in one step.
OpenArena looks good, and it’s already out of the box ported to the Mac with a neat bundle and everything. I’m impressed.
Hooray for my three button, wheel-free mouse, though. I tried fighting the bots with my playstation controller at first, setting it up to work like Star Wars: Battlefront II, but OpenArena is just too fast paced for me to be able to keep up that way.
Until yesterday, it’d been 21 years, 8 months since the Dodgers last made a trade with the Giants. But yesterday the Giants shipped to LA a pinch hitter in exchange for a player to be named later.
Bet you thought from the title I was going to say it’d been that long since the Dodgers scored, until last nights win, heh.
The Dodgers are now in fourth place, 5 games out, thanks to this 1-9 slide. Getting swept by Arizona was most brutal, knocking the Dodgers down from second place, 0.5 back, to fourth place, 4 back.
But you know it’s truly horrific when the Dodgers haven’t scored a run in 28 innings…