We have progressed, unfortunately, deep into the harsh realm of reality, where there are no 'Undo' commands, far from the naive optimism of our seemingly halcyon early days.

The decision to mulch our key sections, 2 and 3 (whoops) 3 and 4, with straw was inspired by the memory of my youth, in which we used straw extensively in our organic gardens, and the recommendation in some recent articles which advised that clean, seedless straw can both preserve moisture and inhibit weed growth, while also not robbing as much nitrogen from the soil as decomposing wood mulch.

Can you guess our mistake from the above information? We couldn't, and the 2005 Turner household herb project hereby resolves to be a little more careful in the future:

You know what that is, my friends? That is hay. And not just a few sprouts of hay. I'm talking hundreds of sprouts with a thick mat of a root system to rival the fairways at Augusta National. I'm growing turf here, established from scratch in just over two weeks.

My straw, apparently, was not 'seedless' in any sense of the word.

Here's what this realization felt like as I frantically pulled the cozy straw blanket aside to reveal the green invasion of my herb garden (lest you get the idea this is somehow FUNNY): My fellow movie buffs will recall the 1982 film 'Creepshow' and the segment based on Stephen King's short story, 'Weeds.' Poor Jordy Verrill touches some stuff coming out of a meteor and it turns into a growth that spreads slowly at first, then with horrifying suddenness. That's what the hay infestation felt like.

After quickly weighing a variety of options, from taking a rototiller to the whole mess, to pouring a large glass of scotch, to cursing the sun for its insidious, life-sustaining energy, I came to my senses and accepted my own negligence in not ascertaining the quality of my straw before layering it over my garden. Then I poured a large glass of scotch.

Later, I came up with a brainstorm that allowed me to possibly preserve the garden, with sort of a nice technological twist. It is involving more work than I would normally prefer to do, however, and thus my report of it will be put off until the labor is completed and I'm feeling enamored once again with my little project.

Posted by drturner at 11:42 | Permalink

I read the news the same way I stare out the window when someone else happens to be driving me around my town: mostly gazing at the same old stuff, but focusing in on the occasional object of interest off at some weird angle so you never noticed it.

Here's an interesting take from an odd angle down in South Africa:

Run Osama, run!

...I pray - yes I do - that Osama bin Laden will not be so stupid as to get himself caught by the Americans, dead or alive, for the Americans will outdo even their sordid selves to humiliate him.

Says my friend the analyst: "The whole American fixation with humiliating Islam and Muslims springs from the core American politico-economic self-interest, which is loaded with long-standing tensions exacerbated by the fact that oil states are generally powerful, religious states.

America has for a long time claimed to hold the moral high ground, and that has included its pursuit of the politico-economic invasion to attack Islam, because they see it as barbaric, uncivilised and inferior."

Those, he says, were precisely black people who were taken into slavery in the first place because their human worth and dignity was looked down upon; the same parallel explains why the apartheid oppressors in South Africa had no qualms about murdering activists and having braais at the same time...

I had definite feelings on 9/11 because I felt the way those towers were attacked was gross. I am not so sure anymore, and America needs to seriously question its brand of "morality".

The fellow seems a little uninformed about his own local history regarding slavery, but his point of view should be instructive: Lots of folks don't live in the same world we do.

Posted by drturner at 10:06 | Permalink

Now that would be an unexpected way to preserve the dynasty. She does make sense:

"In the United States if there's a terrible report, people don't riot and kill other people,'' she said. "And you can't excuse what they did because of the mistake – you know, you can't blame it all on Newsweek.''

Why anyone would feel the need to provide cover for the WaPo/Newsweek conglomerate is beyond me, but the woman speaks the truth.

Posted by drturner at 02:05 | Permalink

I'm pretty sure I haven't yet treated you to details of our final cat solution, following the extreme nastiness of last year. We had dithered for a while over whether to put them to sleep, but then decided for several reasons it would be a better idea to move. We visited several houses over in red-state country before we got to this one. After less than 20 minutes of scoping it out, we told our realtor guy, "Get us this house. Please."

There are a number of great features, but a major selling point was the (seemingly) air-tight fencing of the back yard and the storage shed outfitted like a miniature house, complete with screened windows, rain gutters and a porch. Just the right set up for our furry little pollution-machines.

Here in red-state country, everything has its proper place. For cats, this means no structure I happen to live in.

Unfortunately, as noted earlier, the little guy in the middle found a way over the fence and there's been no sign of him since. That's life.

For the remaining two, it's a pretty sweet life. They have a cat door mounted into the window with insulation and aluminum tape, linoleum floor for easy puke-cleaning, electric heat when needed, and refreshingly little opportunity to affect my respiratory processes and immune system.

They're not bad animals to have around, as long as they're out where they belong.

For the record, not all the animals have been exiled to the back yard. The mostly non-allergen puppy and ferret got to stay inside, where they enjoy a twice-daily helping of ferret treats together (the puppy vacuums hers down in about 3 seconds, then sits for the next 10 minutes hoping the ferret will miss a few pieces).

Puppies get cut a fair amount of slack on the basis of personality and unassailable cuteness...

...and at this moment, I'm actually grateful for the fact that InstaPundit completely ignores this Web site. He'd probably be able to figure out where we live, and then I'd rue the day I posted these photos.

Posted by John Climacus at 12:38 | Permalink

I arrived home and found this note in my checked bag, along with a dismantled nail clipper.

Apparently the TSA geniuses opened my suitcase to check for contraband, and saw fit to take my newly purchased nail clipper and rip it apart. They kept the little nail-file tool with the curved end that usually sits in the middle of the clipper. What was left is shown in the photo.

I'm only mildly perturbed over the loss of the $1.99 tool. I'll spend more on tolls today. And the symbolic importance of the file tool is only that. Shucks, I never file my nails and only use that device a few times a year when my white collar nails happen to pick up some dirt.

What interests me is the motivation of those who rifled through my baggage and after nosing around decided to eventually pull the clipper into separate pieces. They unzipped the suitcase, dug through my stuff, found the nail clipper and said, "Hey, let's rip this little baby apart. And let's keep the filing tool."

So I'm left with the image of TSA union monkeys back in their apartments, swilling Boone's Farm and giggling while they pass my file around and manicure their intrusive little digits.

"Let's get our fingertips real smooth so we can pat down some more 75-year-old caucasion women. While young Arab males skate through security. Ha ha ha ha ha!"

(I'd lay this on Norman Mineta, a Democrat, but that might be construed as "political," and I'm supposed to steer away from political disputes for health reasons. But as long as we keep our observations couched within parenthetical statements, I think we can say whatever we want. So here goes: Thank you, Norman Mineta, token Democrat on the Bush cabinet, who George Bush mysteriously refuses to dump, and who is therefore able to ensure our airport security personnel are as misguided as possible. You owe me a nail clipper.)

But I'm not such a rube as to think the government-sponsored TSA hooligans (there's a tautology in there somewhere) don't have their place in the natural order. They're there to keep us honest: They remind us there's a great big government in this country of ours, and at the point-of-purchase level it is comprised largely of school-lunch-lady-types who have gone over to the dark side.

Posted by John Climacus at 01:21 | Permalink

Holy guacamole, the life-changes they shower down like confetti: Following the most recent adjustments, here are the next.

The culmination of many years and many fluctuations:

You're a college graduate. Nice work. Go get'em.

Posted by John Climacus at 12:42 | Permalink

After careful consideration, having watched tonight's episode of Hannity and Colmes, I believe Pat Buchanan colors his hair.

Let the chips fall where they may.

Oh yes, I am a political man. I'm just a little more focused than the next guy.

Posted by drturner at 02:12 | Permalink

Our in-house serial aficionado of the fairer gender, Angus, is who-knows-where, leaving me to pick up the slack in this tawdry department. Oh, the hits I take for the team.

[Referred by the uptight, straight-laced folks at The Corner.]

GOP Babe-of-the-Week winners are regularly honored at JerseyGOP.com:

Tsk, tsk. I, as a man, am simply eager to get back to the garden, where the real action is.

Posted by drturner at 01:54 | Permalink

Recent ruminations got me thinking: Herb-garden-blogging need not be merely a metaphor for eccentricity. If we truly can do whatever we want here, we can bring that concept to fruition, dagnabit!

Hence, the first installment charting the progress of the 2005 Turner household herb project:

Planting strategy in both pots and earth entailed deep layers of composted cow manure, then the upper layers using Meadows Farm Planting Mix, which is primarily a mix of composted cow manure, topsoil and other organic matter - very nitrogen-heavy, to encourage leaf growth rather than flowering.

Mulch is straw. Heavy watering required early on because of recent dry weather in the Old Dominion.

Updates every couple weeks. Please stay tuned.

Posted by drturner at 12:13 | Permalink

Maybe, more accurately, it should be titled 'rites de passage.' Anyway, the sense of it is the same.

[I read some years ago that Vinnie Testaverde's father, because of a heart condition, had to give up watching any of his son's games. In the same spirit, I am presently allowed to opinionate as long as I forego any discussion of politics. Insomnia and anger, it seems, make dangerous bedfellows, like the kind that can give you a stroke. So I'll follow the Doctor's lead and try to keep my focus on domestic issues. Domestic in the sense of, right here around the house.]

The youngest of the progeny has just announced her plan to move out of the house, and in fact has already co-signed on a lease, I think. And no small move it is - we're talking 40 miles or so, which in the D.C. area is the equivalent of 200 miles in less heavily congested locales.

It's the kind of news that makes you step back for a second because it portends a more significant change than you might have foreseen. Or rather, you really can't imagine what it will feel like until it's upon you.

The experience of raising teenagers is - ok, let's just stipulate such a thing really happens: Maybe it would be more accurate to say 'the experience of presiding tenuously over a location in which the teenage species attempts to coexist with regular citizens...'

Anyway, the experience is one that conditions you into an attitude of constant watchfulness, but different than the constant watchfulness you have over your pre-teen kids. With the over-13 offspring, there's less of the minute-to-minute observation - MUCH less - but much more of a wary, waiting-for-the-other-shoe-to-drop expectancy that becomes the subtext to most of your waking life.

You find out, sometimes early on, that there's a lot more to worry about and you have a lot less power to influence what might happen. You can childproof your house and maybe even your relatives' houses, but you can't teenage-proof the world.

I know, there are those who maintain that difficulty with one's teenagers is evidence of some past or current failure on the parents' part, and therefore any 'teenage issues' are actually symptoms of faulty concepts and planning. Could be. Obviously, a financially secure and happily married couple will give their kids a better starting point than the other 50%+ segment of the population. But living the American dream is no sure formula for getting through the dangerous years unscathed. 'Parents of teenagers all live in glass houses' is a maxim I heard many years ago and I'm pretty convinced by the evidence that it's true.

So to look around at your existence, and accept that shortly it will be totally free of children and their various accoutrements for the first time in a long time, is simultaneously like:

• A weight being lifted; in the sense that the kid has made it through the tumult and is headed out into the world in one piece. She made it. She is ready to start her own grand tour of the cosmos.

• A weight being lifted; in the sense of a time when the constant watchfulness must be relaxed, for her sake and yours. It's time to envision your respective lives as autonomous and separate, just as all of our lives are. You'll always have an eye open for her, but you have to let her go.

• A burglary; a whole bunch of stuff you're accustomed to having around being taken away. Rooms emptied, small creatures vacated, comings-and-goings coming to an end. It will impact the way you shop, the way you cook, and whether you instinctively ask whether to leave the porch light on at night.

• The end of an era. Whether or not your parental tenure was Ozzie-and-Harriet normal, which mine was NOT, grooves got etched deeply into your everyday thinking and you were unconscious of them until this very moment when you can imagine them gone. It must be akin to the decision to retire.

For me, the odyssey began under very different circumstances around 24 years ago. Starting a family while you're in college is tough financially. My kids and first wife didn't have the easiest time. We started real young, which is nice now - when we are in our forties and the kids are old enough to speak with as equals - but it was very hard then.

But they don't make you get a license to have kids...thank goodness. And thank goodness the human genetic cabal is, apparently, pretty resilient. And to spell out another subtext, in case it's not evident: The notion you shouldn't have children until you are financially able to ensure a worry-free existence for all involved would preclude a lot of great kids being born.

I'm sure additional dimensions of this milestone will occur to me in the days ahead, and I'll try to make it a point to record them here. We expect to have another milestone later this week when we will be traveling. I'll be in Sarasota, Florida for about five days in a beachside motel with no Internet access, but there is a Panera Bread outlet nearby with wireless access so I hope to do some updates from there.

Non-political: I promise, Doc.

Posted by John Climacus at 03:20 | Permalink

How very cool. I don't even care if it means tipping the hat to the same (updated) post by the same guy as in MY previous post, but this is just so cool that pride is swept aside:

An interview with Mike Nelson of MST3K. Just read it (and be sure to read to the end).

Posted by drturner at 12:22 | Permalink

This is not my schtick, but hats off to those who are so inclined. The political season begins anew! Brrrr.

Although some folks in these parts seem to think it can hardly be a White House at all without a Bush in it, other suitors are being pushed out onto the dance floor.

The only fault I've observed in the junior senator from our state is the struggle with an addiction that has afflicted many in this region. Though he seems to enjoy it. And Copenhagen is, we must admit, a top shelf specimen. (Personally, I traded the demon weed for nicotine gum.)

Nat has done enough work to get a George Allen political action committee off the ground, so he's the guy to start with.

Posted by drturner at 08:21 | Permalink

An interesting exchange which would be unremarkable if it had not taken place at 2:00 am.

Young lad: 'Dr. Winston Turner, another blogger has posted a series of tips for developing a successful Web site. Alpaca Burger Forum seems to have internalized almost none of these measures. What gives?'

Dr. Turner: 'What in the heck are you doing out this late, son? It's closing time out here and I need to get in my car and go home.'

Young lad: 'I'm a figment of your imagination after a long night tending bar. Of course you need to go home, but please answer the question.'

Dr. Turner: 'Ok, then. First I would say that the term 'blogging' casts a wide net, and on my edge of the net are those who write for their own amusement and the occasional release of stress.

'On one hand you have some fascinating and prescient individuals whose history of commentary ranks with the best stuff in modern opinion and reporting. There are people doing phenomenal things online - just scroll back through our previous posts and archives and you'll see that most of the blogs we link to are really excellent.

'On the other hand are sites like this one to which is dedicated relatively little time, and what time there is is primarily for recreation. How much entertainment value does this hold for others? Who knows. Probably, there are folks who would enjoy watching me putter around the house and tend the herb garden, and then there may be folks who would find it boring as death itself. We can live with that. Maybe some time we'll be able to dedicate more quality hours, but for now taking questions from imaginary boys in a 1950's-style tableau will do just fine.'

Young lad: 'Well thanks, Dr. Turner, that's just what I wanted to know. I'm going to run home right now and tell my mom.'

Dr. Turner: 'You do that Jimmy, and tell your mom and dad that the old Dr. says Hi.'

Posted by drturner at 05:56 | Permalink

No further comment needed, indeed.

Posted by drturner at 12:13 | Permalink

Clarity and Resolve has an interesting historical essay on Perpetual Jahiliyyah:

The collections of sunnah (the way of life prescribed as normative for Muslims based on the Qur'an and the teachings and practices of Muhammad) are the religiously decreed guide to a lifestyle of xenophobia, overblown entitlement, violence, and complete resistance to change...

Posted by drturner at 09:53 | Permalink

This type of thing is just a terrible contribution to the political divisiveness currently straining the social fabric of this great nation. It deserves to be roundly denounced. In order to keep our visitors apprised of the dirty underside of the culture war, we reprint the item in question here.

Posted by drturner at 12:35 | Permalink

Nat deals up another cornucopia of links and comments - as always, all worth reviewing - including this gem about Belgium:

...Each of these five basic types of Belgian comes in a French speaking and a Flemish speaking variety, except for those Belgians who stick with the traditional Arabic. Yet each of these comes in a male and female variety, except for those who are kind of both, giving us something like 50 types of Belgian. Then you plop Brussels smack in the middle of the place, declare it the capitol of Europe, and erect a big sign saying

Give me your bribed, your boors,

Your coddled asses yearning to set fees,

The 'lected refuse of your preening whores.

Send these, the shameless, scandal-tost to me,

Rent 'em a flat beside the Sunni Moors!

Rest assured, if Holland was awash in so many French, diplomats, and French diplomats they'd breech their dykes and all try to float to Florida on inner tubes...

Humorous. I've known some Belgians, and I like to think they're mostly rational.

Posted by drturner at 12:18 | Permalink

Schadenfreude, thy name is Huffington.

Why Arianna's Blog Blows

...On the financial side of the summary, Huffington stressed the profit potential of her venture. And I'm told that, in conversations with those she fingered as potential investors, she spoke of her ambition to raise $5 million to underwrite her new company, which she amusingly likened to getting in on the ground floor of AOL "pre-merger." Of course, with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, everyone knows that AOL pre-merger was a house of cards whose stock value was artificially inflated by the Internet bubble. Given Arianna's pitch, it's all the more amusing that her start-up investor turned out to be none other than the former executive vice president at AOL Time Warner, Ken Lerer...

If that tidbit does not ding the bell of truth and humor for you, then just follow the link.

Posted by drturner at 11:51 | Permalink

Fully aware that our linking to a big league blogger is akin to putting a 'Coke' bumper sticker on my wheelbarrow, I'm going to call attention to one of our Group #1 libertarian bloggers who has recently returned from a temporary exile. Because his return post is just that good.

...I'm talking, of course, about the Terror War. I'm talking, of course, about people who ought to be on the leading edge of the (for lack of a better phrase) propaganda campaign, but aren't.

Not only aren't they helping, they're doing their best to sow discord. To cause confusion. To hamper the effort. Et-goddamn-cetera...

...I'm a big believer in liberty. I support abortion rights. I want gay marriage legalized. I think good porn can be quite healthy. I was calling for an end to the Drug War long before I ever took my first hit of pot. I like a little hearty raunchiness on my TV, and nothing frightens me less than the prospect of my child someday catching a glimpse of a boob on the tube.

For all its flaws, for all its occasional nastiness, I still think liberty is the best thing going � even when I disagree with how my neighbors exercise their freedoms. After all, maybe they don't approve of what I do with mine.

But where are my allies?

There's some wonderful prose and a pretty cool surprise over there, so go read it for the full effect. Stephen Greene is some kind of renaissance man and his site is worth a frequent visit regardless of your politics.

Posted by drturner at 11:45 | Permalink

Random observations on a remarkable television program:

-Bauer and Heller both say "nucular." Gotta love that.

-The ACLU-lookalike and the State Department are depicted the roots of evil. Ok, maybe 'incompetence.' But similar.

-'It's a dirty business and we may have to get dirty.' What so many feel but so few seem to be able to say.

-The Chinese are near-supernatural detective geniuses. Interesting Charlie-Chan twist.

-The sequence on the warhead launch has been started. 3:50 minutes and counting down. We're going to need some torture, and FAST.

-Torture. TORTURE!! What else will save us?

-Hmm. I guess, nothing.

-Boy, these guys sure are willing to pull out all the stops plot-wise. The missile is launched. I would not be surprised if the Islamic terrorists manage to blow up a U.S. city.

-Although I suspect Jack Bauer will personally attempt to pilot a helicopter into the missile's path for a mid-air interception.

I just discovered '24' this year, and may just have to obtain all previous seasons on DVD and watch them consecutively in one sitting. That's what - three days worth? I am up to the challenge.

Posted by drturner at 10:06 | Permalink

...but I believe the quality drops off substantially after Fox and Friends.

Posted by drturner at 07:53 | Permalink

Keeping with our tradition of introducing new 'concept' expositions, and perhaps even maintaining them for more than a few posts, we hereby introduce another.

Referred by Moorewatch, we are pleased to genuflect to Clublife, 'An online narrative of the life of a bouncer at two of New York's most popular nightclubs.' It's pretty darned good and, for our purposes, it's pretty darned easy to link to it:

I've written repeatedly about how the entire club experience is a sham -- a show put on for you, by us, for the sole purpose of separating you from your money as expeditiously and efficiently as we can suck it out of your pockets. Trust me, you're not cool. We're all so thoroughly jaded by this business that we legitimately dislike you as soon as you strut through our doors. You prance past in your silk shirt, give me your ultracool handshake and slip me a twenty, and you won't get five paces into the VIP room before I'm rolling my eyes at Johnny and shaking my head in disgust. We're selling you a dream, albeit an unhealthy, distorted, delusional one bereft of any redeeming value whatsoever, rotting from the inside out. The bouncers don't like you, those gorgeous female bartenders think you're a tool, and we all want 4 AM to come around as quickly and painlessly as possible so we can get our little envelopes full of cash and go the fuck home...

I don't even need to tell you to go read it, because you are already drilling down there, and you already understand why I wrote this post. You are going to spend muchas horas at that site just as I have. I've lived the club scene for many years, and I can tell you Clublife is a phenomenal Web site.

[It will appear on our Responsible Adult 'Everybody Wins' Blogroll, you can be sure, as soon as I decide to let Greymatter muddle through the rebuilding process.]

Posted by drturner at 01:07 | Permalink

On second thought...forget about that previous post. The last thing I want right now is a new cause to argue and get upset about. (I can change my mind like that whenever I want, see, because I run this site. The beauty of sparse traffic is you can switch gears with bizarre unpredictability and not bother anyone, like a crazed despot ruling a desert island.)

If I was going to go on a crusade about baseball, it would be to start getting all those missing asterisks put where they need to be.

When the owners get tired enough of owning the Nationals, they'll do something about Peter Angelos.

Posted by drturner at 02:57 | Permalink

This appears to be a story with legs. We feel it must be presented for the public good. We consider it an issue of nat---ional importance.

['Story with legs' seems to imply controversy...Dr. Turner does not 'do' controversy...ok...ok...breathing slowly and attempting to measure our response...]

The blogosphere has turned the spotlight on Dan Rather and innumerable other jackasses previously protected by tradition and ignorance. Maybe it's time the national pastime got the benefit of some smart folks not afraid to go against the grain.

My take is: Compared to Rather, MLB is fourscore times more ripe for the plucking. This should be a walk in the park. And it should be a high-profile, non-partisan, opportunity to do some good.

Side-note: Much as I hesitate to say it, such a campaign would undoubtedly make GW Bush look very, very good. Cleaning up the national sport under W's watch? It would drive his enemies berserk.

You can just picture prominent Democrats forced to stand up in support of the MLB antitrust exemption and Peter Angelos' ownership of the Nats. Stepping in it, again and again, as they have sadly done so many times since the 1980s. If the bloggers can prime the pump, I strongly believe Karl Rove eventually would be there to further the expansion.

The current arrangement whereby the owner of the Baltimore Orioles, Peter Angelos, controls the future revenues of the new Washington Nationals baseball team, seems to be bordering on criminal. Or real crooked, at least. Or of such a snaky nature that anyone with a brain who heard the details and cared about baseball in DC would immediately grab a bullhorn and head toward Camden Yards and shout from the Bal'mor rooftops that this is a rip off!.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

I can't say why Major League Baseball's antitrust exemption has never been challenged in a significant way. I'm no student of history. But the time has come for a challenge. Major League Baseball is in need of some sunshine.

I propose a major educational effort aimed at our esteemed governmental representatives. For talking points, let us start with this (excerpted here - please read it all):

The premeditated, broad-daylight financial mugging that the Angelos-Selig gang perpetrated against the Nationals, their fans and the nation's capital was so vicious that it cries out for Congress to revoke baseball's unique antitrust exemption, which made the mugging possible....

...Let us be clear: Forcing the Nationals to become a very, very junior partner in a regional sports network overwhelmingly controlled and operated by Angelos -- an irascible, vengeance-seeking malcontent -- seriously jeopardizes their short- and long-term ability to compete...

...The Washington television market is vastly larger and wealthier than the Baltimore market. Yet, Angelos will currently pocket 90 percent of the MASN profits. Moreover, by any reasonable standard, the $20 million rights fee that MASN will pay the Nationals in 2005 and subsequent rights-fee escalations are almost certainly far below fair-market value...

Read it all.

More information follows, beginning here:

Q: What is the antitrust exemption and how did baseball get it?

A: Any business that operates across state borders -- and therefore participates in interstate commerce -- is subject to antitrust legislation. Attempts to control trade and monopolize may be deemed illegal by federal circuit courts under the Sherman and Clayton acts.

Baseball has been exempt from these antitrust laws since 1922, when the Supreme Court ruled in its favor in Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore, Inc. v. National Baseball Clubs. The Supreme Court determined even though there was scheduling of games across state lines, those games were intrastate events since the travel from one state to another was "not the essential thing," Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in the decision.

Baltimore, a member of the Federal League that operated as a major league in 1914-15, had sued the National and American Leagues, charging the Federal League's inability to sign players was due to antitrust violations.

At the time of the 1922 ruling, the National and American Leagues were merely umbrella organizations. They arranged the schedules and set the rules, but the business was entirely local in the sense that there was no revenue sharing, no radio or television and no national sponsors or licensing deals.

By virtue of the exemption, coupled with decades of reluctance of various courts to overrule, baseball is the only sport, or business for that matter, that has an exemption to the extent that it does...

More, here:

...the antitrust exemption prevents the relocation of teams without approval by the owners, and keeps teams from being able to file antitrust lawsuits if attempting to move. The last team to relocate was the 1971 Washington Senators who moved to Arlington, Texas and became the Texas Rangers. The antitrust exemption has been tested on a number of occasions, the most recent being in 1992 when the San Francisco Giants desired a move to Tampa and in 1995 when the Houston Astros petitioned to move to Northern Virginia. While this antitrust exemption has prevented small market cities from losing their teams and kept franchise location stable throughout Major League Baseball, it also, in essence, traps teams to their locales and prevents economic growth for some struggling small market organizations.

Even more, here:

Baseball's antitrust exemption is an anomaly. In Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore v. National League of Baseball Clubs, the Supreme Court decided that baseball was not subject to the antitrust laws because professional baseball games were purely local exhibitions, not interstate commerce, and thus were not subject to federal regulation. The decision made little sense in 1922, when it was rendered, and it is absurd on its face as applied to the multi-billion dollar business that baseball has become. The Supreme Court has recognized that the decision is an anomaly, but has stated that it is now such a long-standing anomaly that it's up to Congress, not the courts, to correct it. And Congress certainly should do so.

On another level, though, Sen. Specter's letter shows a shameful lack of knowledge about the business of professional sports. Major League Baseball has an antitrust exemption. Professional football does not, and hasn't since the Supreme Court's 1957 decision in Radovich v. National Football League. Nor do the other professional sports leagues. That the NFL and NBA have proved so successful shows that baseball's antitrust exemption is not only unsound legally, it's also unnecessary.

This Major League Baseball antritrust situation is screwy and untenable. The upshot of this dirty little secret is on full display near the Naval Yard in DC, many nights each month, a short jog from the nation's capital.

Posted by drturner at 12:31 | Permalink

Interesting, mildly addictive, not really so scary:

The e-mail from CNET was ominous:

I want you to do something: go to ZabaSearch.com, type in your name, and see what comes up. Are you shocked at the search results? Or are you not surprised? While this type of search is nothing new on the Internet, what surprises me is how simple it is to obtain my information--but then again, you can also pick up the phone book. Usually, people searches require some effort and hoops to jump through before you finally get to your info, but this search was a piece of cake! Does this type of search cause concern for you? Are we personally to blame for this public information (think back to the last time you filled out an entry form for a contest)? Where should the line be drawn when it comes to revealing this type of information about ourselves?

Personally, I was not shocked, nor set reeling back on my heels in any fashion at all. But I'm probably going to spend an hour or three at ZabaSearch.com and if you are of the type to inquire about those long-lost faces from the past I bet you will also. It's better than googling a name, I can assure you of that right now because there are a few folks I've been looking for for years and I just found some of them that never showed up in years of google searches.

Oddly, no listing on myself! Somehow, Dr. Winston Z. M. Turner has managed to lie pretty low over the years. That was a little disappointing, but since I've been mostly a first-person witness to all of it I guess I'm not missing much.

For not much money you can delve in with a supposedly full-blast-nosey-neighbor background check. Mine came up with zilcho, so I can't say it's worth the price.

Note: Women from the distant past are much harder to find, because of the damnable institution of marriage and the entire name-changing thing. Your third-grade obsession will likely, alas, remain forever lost to you.

As well she should be, you juvenile cad.

But the other stuff you can find out is very good, a stealthy trip down memory lane.

Posted by drturner at 12:59 | Permalink

I'm just holding out hope that Good Guy Nat manages to avoid being one of our select visitors this week, because I do not want to tarnish his soul with the information I am about to provide.

Talk of the business side of the Washington Nationals lately seems more appropriate for a RICO conversation than a baseball one:

If Angelos doesn't own the Nationals, he sure is their "daddy." If you need any more proof, just look at the latest revelation of the television deal Angelos has made with MLB to partner with whatever sap winds up thinking he actually owns this team.

As first reported in The Washington Times yesterday, Angelos will be due a $37.5 million payment come June 30, and another $37.5 million by June 30, 2006. Baseball will be picking up the first payment only because the team isn't likely to be sold by June 30, but you can be sure it will be tacked on to the sales price.

For this, the prospective marks who will wind up pretending to own this baseball team will have a 10 percent piece of the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN).

What does that mean? Angelos will get $75 million and also own 90 percent of a network that baseball believes will be worth $750 million.

The fools who will be the winning bidders for the Nationals will be the ones paying Angelos that $75 million for a mouse's portion of this projected lucrative television network....

What I take from this is the ownership upside of the Washington Nationals has been thoroughly ruined by Major League Baseball, to the extent that only an idiot would consider purchasing this franchise. The only way this problem will be fixed is for someone to bring the case to the U.S. Congress and challenge the MLB antitrust exemption.

No one in their right mind will buy the Nationals with Peter Angelos controlling the team's revenues. Read it and weep. Then contact your congressman.

It's actually a lucky thing the baseball bosses attempted to pull this off right in the nation's capital. Undoubtedly there will be an uproar among the fans and it will take place right in our representatives' laps.

Posted by drturner at 01:03 | Permalink

Another story you'll only see covered at MonkeyWatch:

U.S. government inspectors cited The Scripps Research Institute in California last year for mistreating monkeys in experiments studying the effects of the illegal club-drug Ecstasy. One of the animals died from an apparent overdose, according to a Department of Agriculture report....

"The animal environment includes television (they watch the Disney Channel), videos, play time, and the supervision of a dedicated staff member to monitor their enhancement activities and ensure their mental well being."

Call me a troublemaker, but I think loading lesser primates up with MDMA and then sitting them in front of Disney programming for hours on end is the perfect formula for a bunch of dangerously crazy monkeys.

Posted by drturner at 12:19 | Permalink

I'm not positive 'Christianization' works this way, but for the sake of those who live there it's probably worth hoping for. From WND:

Pope Benedict XVI will strive during his tenure to re-Christianize Europe by making the way for greater religious freedom on the continent and then converting millions of the Muslims who now populate the area...

Writes Wheeler: "While native Europeans simply refuse to have children and are committing demographic suicide, Muslim immigrants are breeding like bunnies. Right now, in many European cities, 30 to 40 percent of all the children are Muslim. It seems all but inevitable that Europe will become Eurabia with a majority Muslim population in most metropolitan areas within a generation.

"There are only two ways to prevent this: eviction or conversion. Either evict those illegal Muslim immigrants out of Europe and back to their country of origin - or convert them to Christianity. Benedict XVI will advocate the latter path. The obstacle in this path is that Islamic law or Sharia views apostasy or irtidad as a crime punishable by death. The murtadd or apostate, by 'turning his back on Allah' deserves to be killed."

Wheeler says Benedict XVI will publicly demand that Muslims be free of any punishment should they choose to convert to Christianity, citing Article 18 of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"You can further expect him to promote efforts by Christians to evangelize Muslims," he writes, "making positive efforts to persuade them to convert to Christianity. First in Europe - and then in Islamic countries around the world."

My personal impression from a cursory review of relevant literature is that Muslims who are prone to conversion tend to convert to atheism far more readily than to a different faith. I don't know for sure why this is (although I have my suspicions).

It seems to me the new Pope would do well to set the goal of converting the native Europeans as well.

Posted by drturner at 09:23 | Permalink