When Ichiro first joined the Mariners and the American League, he managed to post an "infield home run". In what was to become a signature move, he beat out an infield ground ball to reach first. He then promptly stole second. Encouraged by the ease of that manuever, he next stole third. On that play, the now rattled catcher overthrew the third baseman, so Ichiro ambled on home. Sure, there were a couple of pitches in there after the hit, but the follow-up batter was still at the plate when Ichiro scored. Shades of Little League, indeed!

PS: I don't have the exact time and place at hand, but as someone once observed, you could look it up.

The Seattle Times on 07/30/06 published a lengthy story about Warren Moon's journey to the Hall of Fame. It includes his childhood, football days in high school, and in J.C., at the UW, in CFL and NFL. Also stuff about his agent Steinberg and others in his life. The story is posted at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/seahawks/2003162355_moon30.html . An interesting read, both for human interest and for info about a sports career.

I have been following and agreeing with (Patrick Smith's) articles on the ineptness and wrong-headedness of the TSA security measures at our airports. Why is the screening so bad? Why can’t David Nelson or Sen. Ted Kennedy get on a plane without a big hassle, let alone a granny with a hip replacement? Maybe because the TSA can’t (or won’t) trust it’s work force to show any initiative or common sense. So it has to fall back on simple rules slavishly followed by rote.

As a case in point, the (now relaxed) rules on sharp objects:

After 9/11 it was announced that checked luggage was subject to search and locked bags would have the locks forced open or otherwise cut away. I didn’t fancy having my bag wending it’s way through the entire terminal open to random crimes of opportunity, so I started securing the zipper with a plastic wire tie. Easily opened with any sort of cutter, but it gave me some peace of mind. I would put a nail clipper in an outside pocket so I could open the dang thing myself when I reached my destination. Yes, you guessed it – about 50% of the time the clipper was confiscated, regardless of whether the bag was actually searched. (Remember that this was checked luggage, not carry-on.) After several such occurrences, the selective criteria seemed to be whether or not the clipper had one of those swiveling nail fails included. Evidently the threat was that I could dig my way through the floor into the baggage compartment, retrieve my sharply pointed nail clipper, return to the flight deck, and wreak havoc on the passengers and crew. (Sigh.)

Oh well, I guess I shouldn’t complain. When it gets to the point where they shove a camera up our asses to check for plastique, at least we’ll be spared the expense and inconvenience of having a colonoscopy. And we’ll be ever so much safer, to boot.

D. Parvaz, a reporter/columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, recently became alarmed by the news that Paris wants to become a mother:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/poppingoff/295249_popping09.html .

As she summed up:

"Understand, my revulsion at the prospect of Paris birthing her mini-Parisites isn't a puritanical reflex. I'm not the sort to think that only model citizens ought to have kids. Strange, subversive people can make great parents.

It's not even Paris' penchant for creating horrible music, casual sex and garish clothes that make me worry about the psychological well-being of her future progeny.

It's her stupidity, vapidity and her overall skankidity."

The Bush Administration’s search for immunity from war crimes follows an illustrious path of other dictators and sponsors of state supported torture. Witness Pinochet, who appointed himself senator-for-life to escape accountability. But his immunity had slowly eroded in recent years, and he only avoided prosecution due to poor health and now his death. And the Argentinean generals who ran the dirty war were careful to set up immunity for themselves before they relinquished power. All of these people knew full well that that they were/had acted illegally, and they desperately wanted to avoid the consequences.

Perhaps the Bushies have successfully immunized themselves from U.S. law, but I bet there will be a large number of them that daren’t set foot on European soil after they leave office. There are probably any number of EU countries who have had enough of these poseurs and would issue a warrant charging them with war crimes.

David Horsey, Seattle P-I cartoonist, aptly sums up this sad anniversary:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/horsey/viewbydate.asp?id=1583

Maybe Breathed has been reading Glenn Greenwald on the "Manly Man" topic, or more likely he is just tuned in to what our MSM bloviators are saying. Unfortunately though, it's not just Chris Matthews who wants his daddy, plenty of voters do too.

I usually scan the photo galleries of our local papers, so seeing a link to our state’s entry in the Miss Teen USA pageant, I decided to take a look:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/ae/popup.asp?gtitle=Miss%20Washington%20Teen%20USA%202007&SubID=2809&page=0&css=/photos/gtitle.css

Being a fan of feminine pulchitrude and also a dirty old man had nothing to do with it, I swear. But on viewing the first few photos, I got the disquieting feeling that I had suddenly turned into a pedophile. I haven’t read all of the comments, but my own feeling is that these pageants are in the soft-core porn business.