San Diego Local Order of Bloggers

We remember Buck O'Neill (1911-2006)

Silvio Canto, Jr.
11/12/2026 10:06:58 PM

        The great Buck O'Neill was born in Florida on this day in 1911.  He died in 2006.Most baseball fans were introduced to the late Buck O'Neill in Ken Burns' baseball series. Buck related so many stories of the old Negro Leagues.        O'Neill was a pretty good player in the Negro Leagues' greatest team, the Kansas City Monarchs.    O'Neill won't get in the Hall of Fame because of stats. He did not hit titanic home runs like Josh Gibson or cut down batters like Satchel Paige.         Buck gets my vote because he became a wonderful ambassador for baseball with kids.    For example, he came to Dallas and spoke to inner city kids[...]

We remember Mel Stottlemyre (1941-2019)

Silvio Canto, Jr.
11/12/2026 10:03:52 PM

          We remember Mel Stottlemyre who was born in 1941 and pitched for the Yankees, 1964-74.   He died in 2019. Stottlemyre pitched during a very difficult time for the Yankees.   He came up in 1964 and pitched very well for the AL Champs.   Unfortunately, he never pitched for another contender after that.    In fact, the Yankees did not return to the post season until 1976.  Stottlemyre won 164, completed 152, threw 40 shutouts and retired with a fantastic 2.97 ERA.   Wonder how many games he'd won with better Yankee teams?   It's hard to say but 250 is a real possibility.    After baseball, Mel served as[...]

Teletubbies Is Not A Documentary

K T Cat
11/12/2026 2:44:52 PM

Dig this bit of total fantasy from Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EU. It comes on the heels of spasms of violence across Europe, but primarily in France, which came a result of the French being completely out of money for new gimme gimme gimme benefits.  Conflict. Extreme weather.Rising living costs.Millions of people are affected across the globe.Europe is stepping up to support them.Glad to announce more than $800 million for displaced people and their hosts across Africa.And aid for for war-stricken communities.As part of GlblCtzn's 2026 campaign efforts Ursula von der Leyen (vonderleyen) September 26, 2026  From the Pope comes an equally jaw-dropping bit of fantasy.  Pope Leo Calls For Universal[...]

A Few Thoughts On The Midterms

K T Cat
11/5/2026 5:49:32 AM

 ... whose results didn't surprise me in the slightest. While I voted straight R, I completely understood the mood that drove the slaughter. Allow me to use a single example to illustrate.I fully support the Iran War. You can't have a nation chanting, "Death to America" by governmental direction while furiously pursuing nukes and ICBMs. I don't care what your calculations are about the odds they'd actually use The Bomb on us, you can't take that chance. The downside risk is cataclysmic. It was an act of wisdom and bravery to smash the Ayatollahs.Once we started, we needed to just finish it, regardless of the cost. The problem is that Americans haven't had direct experience with large scale military actions since the War[...]

Why does America keep winning?

W.C. Varones
12/12/2025 8:48:00 AM

X:          Yes. But also, America's abundance of natural resources and history of fortuitous developments kinda seems like God shed His grace on thee.        Capitalism and divine providence are like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. 

Inflation is always and everywhere a progressive phenomenon

W.C. Varones
11/13/2025 9:31:17 AM
Excerpt from a text conversation with a young "democratic socialist":DS: Every time the US has become progressive, the right wing and the centrists said the policies were too unrealistic, but the civil rights movement still passed, and FDR is currently looked at as one of the best presidents of the past hundred yearsWC: Some times the right wing and the centrists are right. LBJ's Great Society has trapped millions in multigenerational welfare dependency. Obamacare has made health care unaffordable and is bankrupting both families and the US governmentLBJ's Great Society (and the Vietnam War) was what forced the US government to break the gold standard under Nixon, leading to all subsequent inflation crises. Inflation and all[...]

What Ails Us - But First Some Background

B-Daddy
4/6/2025 5:10:10 PM
Someone close to me asked me to give an overall take on the current state of politics and the prospects for our future. I thought to answer, but first want to explain how I analyze the political landscape.Here are some key principles that are worth repeating because we seem to forget them.1. A chicken is an eggs way of making another egg.      To influence the the size and numbers of your chickens, manage egg production and consumption. Demographics are destiny.2. Eggs are rare, sperm is plentiful.      Combined with 1 above, the most important variable component of demographic destiny is female reproductive behavior and strategies.3. Testosterone confers greater strength and aggression[...]

Bezos vs Burnham - Robber Baron vs Managers

B-Daddy
1/26/2022 8:32:44 PM
 Well not really; and not just because Burnham isn't a household name. James Burnham authored key insights on "managerialism" and predicted its eventual triumph over capitalism in his 1941 book "The Managerial Revolution," summarized here, but skip ahead 5 minutes (this is a great podcast). George Orwell provided this summary in 1943.Capitalism is disappearing, but Socialism is not replacing it. What is now arising is a new kind of planned, centralized society which will be neither capitalist nor, in any accepted sense of the word, democratic. The rulers of this new society will be the people who effectively control the means of production: that is, business executives, technicians, bureaucrats and soldiers,[...]

And Where a Salon Scribe Gets a Tad Out of His Swim Lane

Dean
11/11/2015 9:22:09 AM
Over the weekend, Salon writer, DAVID MASCIOTRA, caused quite a dust-up on social media with his own salute to the troops ahead of Veterans Day . Here is the headline, followed by the sub-headline and then followed by the first paragraph of the piece:You dont protect my freedom: Our childish insistence on calling soldiers heroes deadens real democracyIt's been 70 years since we fought a war about freedom. Forced troop worship and compulsory patriotism must endPut a man in uniform, preferably a white man, give him a gun, and Americans will worship him. It is a particularly childish trait, of a childlike culture, that insists on anointing all active military members and police officers as heroes.If you desire, you can read it[...]

Football rules changes...? You've come to the right place

Dean
1/31/2015 2:04:56 PM

    Theres no denying that over the last few decades most all on-field rules changes made by the NFL have been exercises in increasing offense and scoring. This has created an arms race in a sense where the pendulum swings back and forth between the NFL offenses and NFL defenses whereby the offenses get aided by rules changes and the defenses counter with a combination of innovative schemes and superior athletes. To wit, for years, its been conventional wisdom that the best athletes in the world were in the NBA. Now days, we would add NFL defensive backs and possibly outside linebackers/rush ends into that mix (you dont think dudes like Richard Sherman, Darrelle Revis and J.J. Watt can ball a little?).But[...]

Pumpkins, Baby Goats, and E. Coli Infections at Farms in California, Illinois 

Leslie Eastman

A California pumpkin-farm outbreak turns deadly, while Illinois investigators link infections to bacteria found in a baby goat.The post Pumpkins, Baby Goats, and E. Coli Infections at Farms in California, Illinois first appeared on Legal Insurrection.

U.S. Army Officer Arrested in Britain on Suspicion of Spying for Russia 

Leslie Eastman

This event underscores Europe's increasing concern about Russia conducting a hybrid warfare campaign.The post U.S. Army Officer Arrested in Britain on Suspicion of Spying for Russia first appeared on Legal Insurrection.