Mark Byron

Tuesday Musings

It looks like Romney's poised to take Florida today, as Newt seems more nasty and desperate by the day. When he sticks to the issues, Gingrich is an interesting and appealing candidate, but he has a mean streak that can be both effective and off-putting. When he takes that mean streak and tries to play bash-the-rich-guy, it doesn't sound right, especially coming from a free-market guy.

Anyways, this piece on his stop in Plant City struck a cord. Plant City was just outside of my stomping grounds of Winter Haven-Lakeland when I lived in Florida (on the Tampa side of Lakeland and in Tampa's county); I even interviewed for a teach job there. Even with a winter thaw bringing temperatures up to 51 today, seeing the old home turf in the news was touching.

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"Why should the Devil have all the good music?" the Larry Norman oldie asks. Newt and the Eye of the Tiger people are at it now in the ritual suing of conservatives using liberal-owned pop culture.

At least Brooks and Dunn are bipartisan, letting their stuff be used by both sides without complaint.

Creed 101-Part IA-Out of View Handiwork

One part of the beginning of the Nicene Creed stuck me as very interesting for the modern age.

We believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty

maker of heaven and earth,

of all that is, seen and unseen.

Seen and unseen. That covers a lot of ground and also allows us to change our view of creation without changing our view of the Creator. God made everything, even the stuff we haven't found yet.

Whether it is some odd quantum particle or critters deep under the Antarctic ice or a new exoplanet, God made it, or saw to it that it was made.

Creed 101-Part I- Abba Daddy

I've been drawn to revisit the basic creeds of the church, getting back to the core. That led me to thumb through the Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed.

Both start fairly simply. God the Father is encapsulated quickly in the AC-

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

Note that there aren't any time-tables here. It doesn't specify old earth or young earth or how God made things, just that He did the creating. That can let us take one heated debate off of the front burner, at least as it regards the basics of historic Christian faith.

The one kicker to keep in play here is "almighty." All-powerful. That's one that is hard to grasp for some people, especially if you're the type who mocks the 23rd Psalm, "though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for I'm the toughest *&^%&&# in the valley."  Not quite, Alpha Dawg, you get trumped by the Alpha and Omega.

At such core basics, we haven't kicked too many theists off the reservation. Jews and Muslims are still on board and even some secular agnostics who see God as the First Cause of the Big Bang but have little else for Him to do.

That will change when we pull out that troublesome J word.

 

Midweek Musings

I haven't gotten around to comment on Paula Deen coming down with type-2 diabetes. It's a cheap shot to call it a self-inflicted wound, but a shot that many will take at her old-school southern cooking that doesn't skimp on the sugar or fat. Moderation, folks. A steady diet of fatty stuff isn't good, but some comfort food now and then is just fine.

I'm not sure if this holds across the board, but people that don't like Paula often don't like the South and everything it stands for. Anthony Bourdain doesn't like her, but I don't think he would like living in Savannah as opposed to New York or some global hot spot. I channel-surf into his shows on a regular basis (more so than Deen's stuff), but I'd rather have her as a next-door neighbor than he.

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Interesting re-up for Kevin Love, signing a four-year extension with Minnesota. Interesting tweet from him leading up to today's announcement-

Asked last week by the Minneapolis Star Tribune if he could imagine not finalizing an extension before the deadline, Love said: "It wouldn't be ideal. So it would be nice to work something out. I enjoy it here, I enjoy my teammates, I enjoy the coaching staff, I enjoy the Twin Cities, even when it's cold.

For a SoCal kid, that's saying somethng. His lunch-pail ethic under the boards makes him a bit more midwestern than a candidate for Lob City.

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Alan mentioned the weight issue with Prince Fielder. He will need to start watching his weight, lest his knees and back start to be an issue. If he continues to carry an extra 50 pounds or so of weight, he'll not be all that productive at the tail-end of that nine-year deal.

One thing about the fresh Prince, he could not bat his weight (275 officially, but I've heard numbers a bit north of that) and still make the All-Star team. Mind you, that's on a 5'11 frame, so it's tubbier than it sounds at first.

Barry in Your Pocket

I passed on Mondays GOP debate and tonight's State of the Union; the lowlight of the evening seems to have been the president's desire to have a 30% minimum tax on millionaires. That's likely to play well, given that a certain former private equity CEO with an eye on Obama's job showed that he's paying 15%.

One problem with that proposal is that the people who would be most affected would be people getting capital gains, and some people who aren't normally millionaires in income can become one for a year when selling a family business. For instance, a farmer who has a million-dollar spread may only make $50K a year (farmers usually don't make a good return on their investment), but he'd suddenly be making a million for this year if he sold off the family freehold.

We already have the Alternative Minimum Tax to get some of the game-playing out of the system, but there are reasons why we have special treatment for capital gains; a lot of long-term profit is actually inflation.

43 Million Hot-n-Readys Worth of Home Run Artist

It looks like the Tigers solved their DH problem, but broke the bank doing so; they have come to terms with Prince Fielder on a 9-year, $214 million deal. With Victor Martinez out of commission for most if not all of 2012, Fielder and Miguel Cabrera will likely swap duties at first base and DH. Both are so-so defensive first basemen, so there isn't a clear choice on which of the two to DH.

One thing to look at in spring training is whether Cabrera can move back to third base where he played for the Marlins. On days where Alex Avila might be useful as a DH on a day off from catching, you might play with the idea of putting Fielder at first and Cabrera at third; that would also work when visiting the NL and the DH is out of commission.

Also, depending on how bad Cabera's glove work is at third, you might look at playing him there and letting Delmon Young DH, getting someone like Andy Dirks into the line-up to add some speed.

The real fun will begin when Martinez gets healthy. If Cabrera hasn't made third base a regular home, the Tigers might need to look to move Martinez.