Mark Byron

What Have You Done for US Lately?

Not that President Obama is Jesus, but one of His sayings fits him-a prophet is without honor in his home town... or home country. Here's Nick Kristof, a thinking liberal (yes, they do exist) who will say nice things about evangelical efforts oversees and be critical of The One where warranted.

Well, not quite, but he's being critical of the Nobel committee-

So what do you think of President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize? I’m nonplussed — I admire his efforts toward Middle East peace, but the prize still seems very premature. What has he done?

Even the most famous denizen of the Saginaw Valley took time away from bashing AIG to critique Obama from the left; "Congratulations President Obama on the Nobel Peace Prize -- Now Please Earn it!" Of course, what MM wants to see and what I would like to see are two different things (did you just equate Washington, Castro and Ortega? ... yes, you did), but at least he knows that this was given on potential rather than actual deeds.

Even SNL gave him both barrels last week on not doing much to date. NPR's Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me satired the Norwegians today by accepting their Emmy for the TV show they will do in the future. However, I guess actually doing something other than making good speeches will do for a Nobel.

This isn't the first time that good intentions won a Nobel. Algore won it two years ago and others who talked a good game but failed to deliver the goods, like Oscar Arias and the anti-landmine movement, have gotten the award. The committee seems to veer between people who have actually made life better around the world, like microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus in 2005 or Doctors Without Borders in 1999 or even Jimmy Carter in 2002 (yes, I hear the right wing of the Peanut Gallery wince, but he has done quite a bit of good in many countries over the years even as he's an occasional pain-in-the-butt domestically) to believing-the-right (or should that be left)-thing picks like Obama and Gore.

The Nobel committee is essentially praising Obama for not being Dubya. That's a fairly low bar.

Let's hope Obama earns it, but not at the expense of him being a yes-man for the European elites.

Under Pressure

I had to chuckle on my way back from running errands when an NPR broadcast talked about "mounting pressure" coming from gay activists to get President Obama to move on their issues; he'll be speaking to the Human Rights Campaign this evening. That's an interesting choice of words; any mounting pressure will happen after the meeting.

Speaking of mounting pressure, Barney Frank lived up to his name, questioning the effectiviness of the big march/rally planned for Sunday.

Frank said in an interview with The Associated Press that he considers such demonstrations to be "an emotional release" that does little to pressure Congress.

"The only thing they're going to be putting pressure on is the grass," the Massachusetts Democrat said Friday.

That ranks up with Coleman Young's "he hasn't run anything but his mouth" takedown of Jesse Jackson for a modern political one-liner. Well, Palin's convention line about mayors being community organizers with actually responsibility is good, but it takes a bit more time to set up.

Three or Four Degrees of Seperation

Two odd little stories from today. One was from lunch; the waitress was the granddaughter of my 7th grade geography teacher... in Midland. We're in Lexington, KY, a good 500 miles away, but the young lady is going to UK after growing up in Lansing.

Another interesting story was Eileen asking me to look into a horse that a friend's family owns; this being horsey country, it's not that odd to be a person or two removed from the racing industry. The horse in question was a filly named Dr. Zic who was supposed to be running at Keeneland (Lexington's race track) during their fall meet.

I find that she's riding in the 8th race on the 14th, ridden by a C H Borel.... is that the Calvin Borel of Triple Crown fame? It seems so, since H is his middle initial and it's unlikely that two CH Borels are floating around horse racing.

One step away from my old Geography teacher (who passed on in the 90s as it turns out) and four steps away from Bo-Rail. Interesting

I Can't Drive 0.26- Baseball Remix

This piece on Miguel Cabrera getting dressed down by Tiger GM Dave Dombrowski reminded me of this 2003 post on former Bear QB Jim McMahon blowing a 0.26 DUI.

That blood test reminded me of Dick the Bruiser, who'd do a low-rent Weird Al thing on one of the Detroit rock stations (WRIF, if memory serves) back in the early 80s. One of his send-ups was a redo of I Can't Drive 55 as I Can't Drive Point-Two-Five.

Off by one-hundredth, but give me some poetic license.

Well, Carbrera blew a 0.26 after the police arrived after a scuffle with his wife. He managed to get home, but went 0 for the weekend as the Tigers lost the AL Central.

Something's wrong, but at least Dombrowski is referring this to the Tigers' EAP program; that can be helpful in helping deal with problems that Cabrera might be "self-medicating."