Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 23 Editor's Choice: 3
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Announcer Rotation
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"It'd be great if the networks could cycle analysts through the booth fairly quickly to keep them fresh, but of course that would never work. It would be too time-consuming and expensive to have to train and publicize a fresh crop of announcers every year or two, and anyway who'd take that job knowing he'd only keep it for so short a time?"
Well, TNT et al do this pretty regularly for their NBA coverage, both color commentators and studio teams - the forever-rotating stable of mediocre coaches always has a place to land for a year before being inexplicably re-hired by yet another team.
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Clock Management
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"All things considered, even with a fairly slow reaction to stop the clock, I don't see how there couldn't have been time left following Johnson's scores. The Chiefs should have had to kick off."
Wouldn't the :02 just have ticked off on the extra point, anyways?
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Two Words: Chris Ray
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Actually, a couple more. But the classic case of why the save stat is meaningless is the last three years with the Baltimore Orioles.
After several years as an okay relief pitcher, B.J. Ryan had a nearly world-historical-good season in 2004 (okay, maybe not that good, but pretty good), wherein left-handed hitters hit something like .060 against him, maybe.
He was rewarded with promotion to the closer's role (on a mediocre team), and produced a very good season, with 36 saves. The Toronto Blue Jays responded by giving him a LOT of money, and he's been good - 24 out of 25 saves and a 0.99 ERA.
The O's replaced him with Chris Ray, a pitcher in his second season after a pretty good rookie year - who's 23 out of 24 with a 2.95 ERA.
So as far as the save stat goes, they're the same pitcher, even though Ryan is clearly superior to the (nonetheless pretty good) Chris Ray, and as closers - which it's pretty silly to limit them to - they are EXACTLY the same (though I think the Jays are using Ryan a little more than that - he's on pace for 70 appearances).
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Police State, here we come
[Read the article: AIPAC ruling a blow to press freedom]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What are the other countries in the world where the government imprisons journalists for doing their jobs, these days?
Zimbabwe...Cuba...China...Iran...Saudi Arabia...Russia? Who'm I missing here on this honor roll? I guess North Korea would do it if there were anything like an independent press.
Great.
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Terrorism and Racial Profiling
[Read the article: Getting beyond our airport security obsession]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Katie - most of the terrorist attacks that have hit the West in the last dozen years have been from dusky-looking fellows, but goodness is that a narrow view to take of the issue.
Fer instance - who was responsible for the most deaths by terrorism in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s? White right-wing extremists (Timothy McVeigh and those responsible for murdering abortion providers).
And who was responsible for the most deaths by terrorism in the UK in the 1960s through the 1990s? The IRA - also, pretty white.
The Madrid train bombings were awful - but don't even come close to the toll inflicted on Spain by ETA over the past 50 years.
And what would you do with flights from New York to the UAE, where most of the plane are of Arab abstraction? To India, where the Muslims - omigod - look the same as the Hindus?
I hope you see where I'm going with this. Racial profiling lets insecure xenophobes such as yourself feel better by marginalizing people who haven't done a damn thing.
Better law enforcement IS the answer - remember, this was a *foiled* plot. But "better" law enforcement doesn't mean imposing a police state, or stripping away our rights.
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Useful insight - but
[Read the article: The coming earthquake]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Lebanon's government decided to enforce its sovereignty in the south, along the Israeli border, and deploy its army -- strengthened with U.N. forces -- instead of Hezbollah. From Israel's perspective, it's an important step for stability. It's better to deal with a government, even a weak one like Lebanon's, than a private army like Hezbollah."
Let's be real here. Lebanon's government was only able to "deal" with the UN and with Israel because Hezbollah allowed it to do so. Lebanon will only "enforce its sovereignty... and deploy its army" because Hezbollah allows it do so.
Hezbollah is no "private army" or rag-tag group of guerrillas. It was at one time, but now it is the de facto state apparatus in Southern Lebanon. Nasrallah is more than happy to have this cessation in hostilities in order to re-arm and absorb the waves (and there will be) of new recruits and volunteers that it has gained from this conflict and the heroic status it has gained in Lebanon (and the Muslim and Arab world generally) - but it is (or will be) a cease-fire only because he and Hezbollah wish it to be so.
Make no mistake - I oppose Hezbollah, its tactics, and its goals. But it is they who have won a victory here.
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The Myth of New Hampshire Indepencence
[Read the article: Democrats roll the dice on Nevada]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Not only are voters [in New Hampshire] admirable skeptics..."
Are you kidding me? They might have rejected Bush, but let's look more recently, to 2004. In the days before the Iowa caucuses, Howard Dean was polling at 28% in American Research Group's tracking poll; Wes Clark and John Kerry were more or less tied for second at 19-20%; John Edwards trailed at 8-9%.
The results in NH, after Kerry won Iowa, Edwards came in a surprising second, and Dean third?
Kerry - 38%
Dean - 26%
Clark - 13%
Edwards - 12%
It's just not the case that NH voters are somehow "independent" (and anyways, independence is not such a virtue if it manifests as pure contrarianess) - the undecideds there (and some of those supporting other candidates - Dean had been at 40%, beating Kerry by 25 points, only two weeks previous) were caught up with the media's follow-the-leader coverage after Iowa, just like the rest of the country.