The Next Big Thing (At Least To Me.)

The Next Big Thing (At Least To Me.)

Originally uploaded by Phil At Sun

How to make me a huge fan of your band:

1) Cool guest stars (J Macsis–Dinosaur, Jr., Patterson Hood–Drive-By Truckers)

2) Publicly
idolize
and sound influenced by Bruce.

3) Name check one of my idols in your lyrics:

“Raise a toast to Saint Joe Strummer
I think he might have been our only decent teacher.”

4) Kick ass like The Hold Steady

Onondaga County School Consolidation

Onondaga County School Consolidation

Originally uploaded by Phil At Sun

A nice conversation on the reasons why people may be leaving Syracuse is happening over at NYCO’s Blog

One of the perennial debates is the quality of public schools. An
oft bandied-about idea is public school consolidation,
dividing the entire County into four quadrants and mixing city,
suburban and rural schools’ resources together.
The theory is you would equalize the highs and lows and improve
everyone’s education. Of course, this sort of social
engineering would probably as popular as root canal surgery. NYCO
suggested that we map out the potential
consolidated districts, even if just a rough estimate to further the
conversation.

So, just click on the image to get a clearer view of a consolidated County school system.

Barenaked Ladies Singer Arrested In Fayetteville

Steven Page, the lead singer for Barenaked Ladieswas arrested in Fayetteville on drug charges.

Some thoughts:
First: is this the first time there has ever been an AP story with a Fayetteville, NY address? My hometown has made the big time!

Two: there must be a sentence of community service that involves some sort of free concert in Fayetteville, I mean come on . . .

Three: Even though it’s not my favorite BNL song (that would be “Brian Wilson”) the song “One Week” just keeps popping into my head:

Its been one week since you looked at me
Cocked your head to the side and said Im angry.
Five days since you laughed at me
Saying get that together come back and see me.
Three days since the living room
I realized its all my fault, but couldnt tell you
Yesterday youd forgiven me
But itll still be two days till I say Im sorry

Organizer’s To Do List

Organizer’s To Do List

Originally uploaded by Phil At Sun

Day of SUN’s meeting
to push the city to knock down vacant apartment building.

2008 All Star Game

I just voted the maximum 25 times in the online voting for the 2008 MLB All Star game. My picks:

American League:
1B: Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox
2B: Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox
SS: Orlando Cabrera, White Sox
3B: Mike Lowell, Red Sox
C: Jason Varitek, Red Sox
OF: Manny Ramirez, Red Sox
OF: Coco Crisp, Red Sox
OF: JD Drew, Red Sox
Write In: OF: Jacoby Ellsbury, Red Sox

American League–entire Red Sox starting line up, except for White Sox shortstop Orlando Cabrera–he played for the Red Sox 2004 champs and the Sox should never have let him go.

National League
1B: Prince Fielder, Brewers
2B: Dan Uggla, Mariners
SS: Hanley Ramirez, Mariners
3B: Nomar Garciaparra, Dodgers
C: Josh Bard, Padres
OF: Rick Ankiel, Cardinals
OF: Ryan Braun, Brewers
OF: Kosuke Fukudome, Cubs

Ramirez. Garciaparra and Bard are all former Sox. Ankiel is best story in baseball, washing out as a pitcher and then working way back to majors as an outfielder. Fukudome has the most fun name in baseball. I sort of like the Brewers and think both Fielder and Braun are legitimate All Stars. Uggla the only name I recognized in NL 2b’ers list.

District of Columbia v. Heller: G.W. Bush’s Last Victory

The Supreme Court ruling in the case of D.C. v. Heller is likely to be the final victory of the George W. Bush administration over common sense and justice. They were unsuccessful in overturning Roe v. Wade for the anti-abortionists, but they knocked over U.S. v. Miller for the gun
nuts.

Justice Antonin Scalia carved out a constitutional right for individuals to own handguns in their own homes, to be used for self-defense. He also tossed out the laws that require the use of trigger locks or disassembly of legally owned guns, as these provisions make it nearly impossible to use guns for self-defense. The 5-4 decision was supported by Reagan appointee Anthony Kennedy, Bush 1 appointees Scalia and Clarence Thomas and Bush 2 appointees John Roberts and Samuel Alito.

Now, what was settled law since 1939 has been tossed out the window, ushering in years of court battles in cities and states across the country to decide the scope of the ruling in D.C. v. Heller. The National Rifle Association and other pro-death groups have already vowed to bring scores of lawsuits across the country.

The first battle will be how this applies to states and localities with anti-gun laws. D.C. v. Heller only applies to the federal government and D.C.

It could have been worse. Scalia didn’t totally ignore the fact that “well-regulated” is part of the language of the Second Amendment and specifically stated:

“Nothing in our opinion,” he said, “should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”

One facet of the ruling troubles me more than any other–Scalia’s dumping of trigger lock laws. According to the CDC National Center for Health Statistics, 55% of all handgun deaths are suicides and 5% of handgun deaths are accidental. It’s obvious that keeping guns away from kids and potential suicide victims is an effective way to reduce the carnage of gun fatalities.

Syracuse v. Milan

A recent article in the New York Times about a high school basketball star named Brandon Jennings discusses whether Jennings should skip playing college basketball and, since he is barred from playing in the NBA until he is 19 years old, play professional basketball in Europe. The coaching is intense in Europe and the competition is tougher than in the NCAA. Also, the distractions of NCAA regulations, college classwork and little cash reward all disappear overseas.

King Kaufman who writes on sports for Salon.com, posts his oft-stated opinion that opting for Europe will become standard practice once a few ballplayers break with the college tradition. While I tend to agree with both Kaufman and Rhoden about the benefits of honest professionalism versus sham NCAA amateurism and believe in the broadening ideal of travel, a statement of Kaufman’s jumped out at me and forced me to re-think my position:

Would you like to spend your winter in, say, Syracuse, N.Y., playing against other teenagers, not getting paid and not allowed to make money in other ways, living in a dorm room, forced to go to classes you may or may not be interested in? Or would you rather spend it in, oh, let’s see, Milan, playing against men, making a few million, living in a villa and meeting supermodels?

This is all just another shot at the ‘Cuse. So here are the Top 10 Reasons potential basketball stars should play in Syracuse (even if only for one year) rather than in European hot spots such as Milan:

1) Basketball players are gods on S.U.’s campus.
2) They may not be supermodels, but women at S.U. are quite attractive (also see #1 above).
2) Your games are played in front of crowds of up to 30,000 screaming maniacs.
3) Competition? You are playing in the toughest conference, top-to-bottom, in the NCAA.
4) Your games get shown on American television, talked about on Sportscenter, written about in newspapers and magazines.
5) Your parents can easily get to your games, great reserved seats at the Dome, too!
6) #1 interest in Milan–fashion. #1 interest in Syracuse–college basketball.
7) You’re busy playing hoops during bad weather season. Rest of year is beautiful and you’re free.

Milan restaurants and social life is pricey, even for basketball stars. College social life is practically free for basketball stars (see #1 above.)
9) I hate to be naive, but is a $30K+ per year education for free such a bad deal?
10) Two words: Carmelo Anthony

George Carlin, R.I.P.

Shit Piss Fuck Cunt Cocksucker Motherfucker Tits

Curt Schilling

Curt Schilling

Originally uploaded by Phil At Sun

Curt Schilling is set to undergo shoulder surgery today, something troubling
for any major league baseball pitcher, but especially so for someone 42 years old.

Even Curt’s own blog , not to mention all the news and internet coverage, hints that this may be the end of his career.

I thought he was one of the most interesting people in sports,
someone willing to speak his mind, someone intelligent enough to put
thought behind the words and demonstrate his clearly thought-out
philosophy and world view. I wasn’t thrilled with the right-wing
politics, but it was refreshing to hear a player discuss something other
than pre-chewed cliches.

There were many historic moments in the greatest comeback in sports playoff
history: Big Papi’s two walk-off hits, Damon’s grand slam, Dave Robert’s
steal: but above them all is the bloody sock. Curt had his ankle
sheath sewn into his bone to allow him the strength to push off on
his right foot when he pitched: not once, but twice. He shut down
the Yankees to tie the playoff series at 3-3 (after the Sox had been
down 0-3) and cruised through the Cardinals to win Game 2 of the 2004
World Series.

Like everyone else, I hope this isn’t the end, just another in the
series of amazing comebacks by Curt Schilling. If it isn’t to be,
all I can offer is my profound thanks for 2004 and Curt’s
contributions to the victory that changed everything. It’s a Red Sox
Nation now, no little thanks to the courage and talent of Curt
Schilling.



“Yes, We Have No Bananas . . .”

Fascinating op-ed piece in the NYT on bananas. I had been aware of the sordid history of United Fruit (now Chiquita) and how they brutalized workers in Central and South America and leveraged their power to turn America’s foreign policy into United Fruit’s foreign policy. They even helped the CIA overthrow the elected government of Arbenz in Guatemala in the late 1950’s.

Author Dan Koeppel (”Banana: The Fate Of the Fruit That Changed The World) points out that the banana is the fast food of the fruit world. The fruit is grown only in tropical areas thousands of miles away and responsible for deforestation and other factory farming techniques. Its popularity and extremely low price has been created both by the heavy-handed labor and political activities of companies like United Fruit and by the benefits of low fuel prices (in order to both transport the bananas and to keep them refrigerated.)

Koeppel believes that prices will begin to soar as fuel costs also continue their inexorable climb. But perhaps more threatening is the fruit companies’ decision to invest in only one variety of fruit, the Cavendish, the commercial banana eaten all over the world–despite the existence of thousands of banana varieties, most unknown outside of Asia. A fungus epidemic could wipe out what is a banana monoculture, threatening the existence of the fruit. Far fetched? It’s already happened. In the early 1900’s everyone was eating a monoculture banana called the Gros Michel. A fungus called Panama disease washed over the region and by 1960 had made the Gros Michel variety extinct. The Cavenbdish variety was brought in from China and survived the fungus–even though the product was less tasty and more easily bruised than the Gros Michel.

Koeppel reports that a new, more virulent, strain of Panama disease has arisen and will threaten the Latin American growing fields. Banana companies have done little to invest in ways to counteract the fungus and next to nothing to preserve other varieties of bananas. Koeppel even foresees the end of bananas:

In recent years, American consumers have begun seeing the benefits — to health, to the economy and to the environment — of buying foods that are grown close to our homes. Getting used to life without bananas will take some adjustment. What other fruit can you slice onto your breakfast cereal? But bananas have always been an emblem of a long-distance food chain. Perhaps it’s time we recognize bananas for what they are: an exotic fruit that, some day soon, may slip beyond our reach.