Nerdtastic, the same people who came up with the stats you're quoting are also of the opinion (along with those who saw him play) that Maz is hands-down the best defensive 2B in the last 50 years. Please don't give the anti-stat crowd such easy ammunition.

R. Butler, albeit inadvertently, hits the nail on the head here:

"The main difference between the commentators of the two sides is that the right has people who can actually be entertaining more often...Face it, if the vast majority of people cared what you think, you could have a mouthpiece more impressive than Michael Moore, Jon Stewart, Al Franken. Let's compare that crew to the Right's talking heads and see who can carry a bigger audience."

Coulter, Limbaugh, Hannity et al succeed because their audience looks to politics to entertain them. And nothing entertains them more than having their self-regard reflected back at them -- they have an insatiable appetite for it. I know people who listen to talk radio and watch Fox News an average of 6-8 hours per day. I don't know anyone who exposes themselves to more liberal media for anything close to that amount of time.

...I have worked with people like the two of you.

There may be cogs around us that have also stopped working

Maybe, but it's more likely that the other cogs are working harder because you're not doing crap. Witness the reassigned project of the LW. If you can't find within yourself an ethical framework that demands you do your work, if it means nothing to you that projects assigned to you end up being done with someone else, if you silently gloat that your slack ass is not fired by your superiors but you ignore the fact that others on your level have to pick you up because they're internally motivated and you aren't, then do them all a favor and quit and go on the dole. Pity the poor navel-gazer, ever oblivious to the unintended consequences of his own inaction. Bah!!

Read past the headline and you might figure that out. Geez, people.

I respect your principles, but in this day and age the only way to get elected to national office is to accept donations from many deep-pocketed sources, a list which necessarily includes big business. There's no way around it.

If there are cultural factors at work that lead to poor nutrition and lack of exercise, well, that seems to me like a problem that needs to be discussed. Kudos to Dickerson for doing so.

There are people who can't help being fat -- that's the hand they were dealt. But most overweight people become that way for two simple reasons -- too many calories, not enough exercise. Very few who follow Buffie's regimen will end up looking like her -- they'll be fat all over, and unhealthy. They might claim to feel good about themselves, and maybe some of them do -- but they won't, on average, be around to feel good for nearly as long as those who at least TRY to stay in shape. This is such basic stuff that it seems ridiculous to point out, but evidently it's necessary.

She's also almost 20 years younger.

What amazed me is the number of professional columnists who rushed to judgement against Sheffield without taking one moment to consider what he had to say. Go take a look at Jeff Pearlman's mindless hit piece over at ESPN.com -- there's no evidence that he gave the actual issue a moment's thought. Kudos to King for at least attempting to ferret out some valid meaning.

(I'm attempting to further the discussion below if anyone is interested....)

Just about any T-shirt logo is placed about a third of the way down from the collar to the hem. Guess where that puts the logo on a woman's body? If the shirt read "Drink More Coffee", I presume the LW would be shaking like a leaf.

Paying off debt, unless the LW is in dire financial trouble, is not a valid reason for a presumably healthy 31-year-old to ask for money from her mother (I could see making an exception for health-care related debt). That's tantamount to asking Mom to pay for clothes she'll never wear, dinners to which she wasn't invited, and so on.

It's not as though baseball fans are projecting preconceived notions of African-American surliness onto Barry Bonds -- Barry Bonds IS surly and unpleasant, by acclamation, as reported by virtually anyone who comes into contact with him. The same was true of Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Dave Kingman, and any number of other white baseball players, and they were duly reported as such.

As far as cheating goes, Mark McGwire is a pariah in self-imposed exile. The memories of his exploits are as tainted as any other you could name. No way he feels as though he got left off the hook, and that's a good thing.

I actually think steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs should be encouraged and out in the open for sports. After all, this is the perfect proving ground for finding out what works, what doesn't, what can better a player's health, and what can destroy it. The best substances could then be made available to the general public to help people live better lives, especially as they get on in years.

Do you think it might be better to subject these drugs to responsible medical oversight in the experimentation phase? Why do I doubt that the families of Ken Caminiti and Lyle Alzado would sign on to your plan? I'm sure the Tuskegee experimenters would be first in line, though.