Mark Byron

A Known Homophone Runs for the Senate

We might be back to the state of affiars of having to keep John Kerry and Bob Kerrey straight if Kerrey wins back his old Nebraska senate seat. He's been off in New York City (get a rope) for the last decade running the New School and is using his sister's house as his official NE digs.

Where you were the day you filed isn't an issue, thus the nit-pick that he was in a hotel that day rather than his sister's house shouldn't be decisive. I could be up visiting my sister's cottage in northern Michigan and still be a legal resident in Midland.

Given the lay of the land, Kerrey shouldn't give up his day job too quickly; even as a somewhat straight-shooting liberal who'll buck the party line when called for, he might be hard-pressed to win in a seriously red state. Ben Nelson retired rather than try and hang on to this seat, and Kerrey will be seen as less in touch with the average Nebraska voter on the issues than the more moderate Nelson.

That being said, Kerrey's independent streak will win over swing voters and was nice to have in the Senate, as he occasionally was a Democrat that conservatives could do business with. Those are few and far between these days, but Nebraska is more likely to pick a conservative who votes that way most of the time rather than some of the time.

 

Tuesday Musings

Blackened Tuna, anyone? The Saints are in the funky spot of looking for a temp head coach while Sean Payton sits out the year for Bountygate, and Bill Parcells is the name on top of the rumor list. Somehow, the thought of Payton hiring his temp looks like a mom in hospice care looking for new parents in advance, except without the hankies (since he doesn't get much if any sympathy.

One league source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter on Monday night that he would be "shocked" if Parcells took the Saints job, largely because he likely would have to wait five more years to be eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame if he returned to coaching.

At the level of acclaim that Parcells is at, he doesn't need a formal spot in Canton to be respected.

What's interesting is that the Saints are willing to take the PR hit to take Payton back after his suspension; it would indicate that they think he was overcharged. There is something to the thought that bounties have been part of the game on a small scale, usually a "Smith roughed up our guy last time we met, X dollars to the guy who sends Smith out on a stretcher" ad-hoc level. The Saints both did it on a ongoing basis and got caught in a more PC era for the NFL.

Given that you were trying to hurt people rather than have it merely be a byproduct of hard-nosed play, the Saints are lucky not to have RICO charges up on them. If this were the NCAA, Payton would have a three-year show-cause fatwa on him.

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The "Obamacare" case is getting heard at the Supreme Court and Anthony Kennedy seems ready to toss it out. I'd like to see at least one of the liberal bloc come on board to make it seem less of a right-left decision. That will likely be the biggest case since the 2000 election case and possibly bigger, since a ruling for the health care law will expand government's allowable scope and a ruling against it will set firmer limits on what the federal government an do.

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I haven't weighted in on the Trayvon case yet. It would look like (1) Mr Zimmerman oversteped his role (2) finding the right punishment, if any, is a thankless task (3) quite a few folks have got Zimmerman pre-hung as a personification of The Man and (4) CNN and other MSM outlets went over-the-top making this case a top-burner issue.

That doesn't mean that wrong was not done here, but Trayvon has gone from being a dead black teen in a hoodie to being a personification of black youth, troubled but worthy of respect and life nonetheless; Trayvon the icon has trumped the real person behind the icon. I have a feeling that some of the Trayvon brigade will be walking back some words a la the Duke lacrosse case, but I'm also not ready, like some on the right are doing, of making Zimmerman a hero.

Edifier du Jour:John 10:11-13(NIV)

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³ The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

In Jesus' speech, the Pharisees were likely the hired hands who didn't have their flock's best interest at heart, although that wasn't directly stated.

My mind is turning to applications of that. Which of us resembles Jesus' Good Shepherd and which of us more looks like the hired hand? How many of use run from the wolf, or start to negotiate with the wolf or even for the wolf.

Heck, why not give the wolf the pulpit, the better to understand his view; after all, eating sheep isn't cannibalism, it's just lunch or dinner. We're all fellow carnivores, after all.

I'm thinking of the phrase "sheep-stealing" as it applies to church-changing. The phrase assumes that a church owns its people; if it's being run by a hired hand, the former church doesn't even own the sheep, so it can't be stealing.

If folks aren't being looked after properly, they need to go where there is a shepherd that cares for them and knows them by name and won't get thrown to the wolves, whether the preditors are legalism or amorality or materialism or any number of heresies.

Pirates of the North Sea

Some bad news (from my vantage point) out of Germany, as the libertarian-leaning Free Democrats get knocked out of the Saarland legislature. What is a bit scary is that the Pirate Party got in the legislature.

The anti-capitalist Left Party led by Oskar Lafontaine took 16.1 percent and the Greens 5 percent. The Pirate Party, which campaigns for open internet access, had 7.4 percent, allowing it to enter a second regional parliament after winning seats last year in Berlin’s state assembly.

No, a Pirate Party isn't one where the Captian Morgan flows freely, although they probably wouldn't mind it. They are an anti-intellectual property party (or at least pro-copying of IP); the Pirate Bay downloading site is affiliated with the Swedish branch of the party and Wikileaks uses Pirate Party servers in Sweden as well.

That's a rather radical bunch to be trusted with the levers of power, given that their fellow travelers want to mess with power as their raison d'etre. One could see them as allies in SOPA-like fights, but I wouldn't quite trust one with a cabinet spot, given the problems their friends have created.

Romney Meets Dilbert

If you wonder what happened to Londo¹, Dilbert's pointy-haired boss, he may well have been hired by the Romney campaign and going by the pseudonym Eric Fehrnstrom, given the news of the week and this classic strip.

¹-He's not given a name in the strip, but his 'do reminds me of the Centari ambassador in Babylon 5.

Independents Have No Party Line to Follow

Here's an interesting Michael Spencer post that his disciples at IMonk reposted this week. My title might be a bit flip, but Spencer was looking at the problems of toeing a theological party line as an evangelical. His main focus was on creation issues (you're not going far in life sciences as a young-earth creationist and not going far in church circles as a old-earther or IDer), but the same can be true about any number of theological issues. Southern Baptists can get fired for being too Pentecostal or too Calvinist (if you're not in a neo-Reformed hotbed, in which case being too Arminian can get you the left foot of disfellowship) or too liberal; I'm reminded of the Kentucky Baptist regional body who rejected one prospective member church for being too Reformed and another church for being gay-friendly.

However, most of us don't have to worry about that too much unless we have careers that are theologically/ideologically sensitive. When I taught finance, I taught at church schools that weren't that picky about theological fine points as long as the Gospel was respected amid the internal rate of return math and at for-profit schools that didn't mind the occasional church reference amid good finance teaching. Even when I did my doctoral work at a state school, I could throw in a theological reference now and then; it didn't hurt that bringing the Gospel into finance leaned it to the left a bit, making things a bit less greedy and a bit more communitarian.

Thus, we're freer from having to worry about a theological party line if our jobs don't depend on it. Pastors may have little leeway in questioning their denominational distinctives or apprecating the distinctives of other flavors of the church, but mere churchgoers have much more freedom of thought as long as they aren't making an active stink about an issue. If our job isn't in some secular hotbed where orthodox Christian thought is unwelcome, we have freedom to be ourselves and let the theological chips fall where they may.

That lets us be freer to go where God leads, without having any third rails to get zapped upon.

Hubba-Hubba-Hubcaps?

Alberta is gearing up for a provincial election this spring; by rule, it has to be done by the end of May, but given the short window of Canadian elections, they could see "the writ dropped" at any time.

This is of interest to me as a Poli-Sci geek and Canadphile for the emegence of a Tea Party-esque Wildrose Alliance Party to challange the long-ruling Conservatives, who have run the province for 52 years. In a loose analogue to folks like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann being key focal points for TPers, the Wildrose has a lady leader, former newspaper columnist Danielle Smith.

The Tories are expected to stay in power, but Wildrose is slated to come in a close second (37%-30% with the Liberals and NDP bringing up the rear at 14% and 13%). The provincial party never had the Reform-PC split that the national party had, but it seems to be hitting in the epicenter of the old Reform movement two decades late on the provincial level.

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Alberta politics used to be good for a good blush every now and then courtesy of bombastic old Tory Premier Ralph Klein. His sucessors haven't been as fun to cover, but a goof in the Wildrose campaign comes close to one of those old Klein bon mots.

The graphics for a Wildrose campaign bus had a shot of Ms. Smith right above a pair of bus tires in the back that...made the tires look like a Madonna hand-me-down from one of her late-20th century personas. The Globe and Mail's cartoonist has already taken a swipe at the poor graphics team.

Midweek Musings

Tebow's cheaper than the Aint's bounty program; it cost the Aint's two second-rounders, Sean Payton the 2012 season and the Commander Bligh of the USS Bounty, former Aints DC Gregg Williams, is out indefinitely.

That's about right, but I'd think Williams would be up for something along the lines of 2-3 years of exile. They'll review after a year, but if Payton gets only a year, it's hard to see Williams, who was running the program, getting the same.

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An Algerian al Qaeda backer has been identified as the Jewish school shooter and has been cornered by the French police. He now gets to extend his 15 minutes of fame if the media lets him.

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Miguel Cabrera broke a bone under the eye courtesy of a wicked hop at third; from what the savants are saying, it wasn't Cabrera rust at third that caused it. It was a bad hop that personifies the term "the hot corner" that would have put any third-baseman in the hospital.

Hopefully, he'll heal up in time for opening day. There doesn't seem to be any vision or concussion issues, just stitches and the small fracture. Sunglasses helped cushion the blow, which could have been a lot worse were he out there au natural.

Riggo Redux?

John Riggins got his start with the Jets, but was better known as the bruising single-back in the Washington Redskins' Hogs era. He was listed at 6'2" and 230 and wasn't anyone's idea of a finess runner.

Tack on an inch and eight pounts and a more evangelical persona, and you have the newest Jet, Tim Tebow. Could he wind up converting himself into a Riggins-like fullback who can pass rather nicely if needed and play QB nicely as well? Possibly, if the NY media let him.

Tebow seems an ill fit for the New York media market, but he might be well advised to stay on the Joisey side of the Hudson and let the identity politics of New York howl at a distance. When you put the theology aside, the land of Chris Christie and the Boss is a good blue-collar fit for Tebow. He can give the Jets a lunch-bucket mentality that isn't as splashed by Rex Ryan's brutishness.

It's a cheap experiment for the Jets; a 4th and a 6th heads to Denver and a 7th rounder (possibly Mr. Irrelevant if the Broncos win a title) back with Tebow. Mark Sanchez's life just got a bit more interesting, but Tebow might be better suited as a change-of-pace QB not unlike the role he had as a freshman at Florida; given that Wildcat pioneer Tony Sparano is the new OC in Jetland, that might be Tebow's lot in life.

However, don't be surpised if Tebow becomes a power running back as well as a Wildcatter.

Establishing a Nomination Path

Here's a not-as-intersting-as-it-looks Ronald Brownstein piece on the GOP race post-IL. Romney does well with upscale non-evangelials and Santorum does better with downscale folks and evangelicals.

Even though there is not much policy difference between the two on economics and Romney might actually be more liberal (if his stint as MA governor is any guide), Romney gets cast as the economic conservative.

Part of that is libertarians bashing Santorum on economics in order to get him out of a winning position. Some buzz was made of a Paul-Romney coalition to make Santorum look bad, but there is unlikely to be some grand conspiracy; thus, don't expect Rand Paul on the ticket.

While there are quite a few evangelical libertarians, there is a vocal secular bunch who hate moral conservatives. Since social liberals are in the minority in the GOP, they can't go out and campaign against Rick Sanctimonious. That would most likely backfire badly.

Thus, they attack Santorum for being not as economically conservative as they'd like. That might wind up getting votes for Romney as well as Paul, but it keeps Santorum bottled up in a trailer park in Yazoo City rather than a broader candidate, which is the first goal. Romney's PAC is more than happy to pitch the same message, since it helps Romney, even if he'd likely have voted the same way on some of the issues at hand were he in the Senate.

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Is this a bitter divide? Not too much. When you take the attack-ad rhetoric aside, Romney is not that much different on the issues. He'll have a harder time differentiating himself from the president than Santorum would, but he'll also have a more moderate persona. Blue collar churchgoers might opt to vote Obama if social issues are off the table, but Romney might pick up some extra soccer moms.

The Mormon stuff is more likely to be an issue with libertarian leaning swing voters (who might get scared off by the devoutness and funky theology) than by evangelicals (who are scared of the funky theology too, but find the moral center a feature rather than a bug when put into the policy arena). Will Democrats try and run that by folks? Yep, but it's got a good chance of backfiring, since it's likely to be done with the tact of a Sherman tank by the Church of Planned Parenthood.

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Things aren't over with yet, but without a lot of debates, we're left with a ad-centric campaign which helps Romney. Barring a major faux pas, we're likely stuck with him as the nominee, which isn't the worst thing on the planet.

Some Things Just Are

I'm rewinding the tape a couple weeks to go back to a pair of posts. One was from John Piper on the bad tornado outbreak of early March from a somewhat hyper-Calvinist vantage point and a Internet Monk bashing of said post.

Who do we blame for such "Acts of God"? It's easy to give God credit when he's taking out your enemies; I recall Piper getting some rhetorical points when a tornado ripped through a liberal Lutheran church when the ECLA was meeting down the road from Piper in the Twin Cities. However, I don't see such put-the-fear-of-god-into-them with the most recent outbreak.

There's a non-trivial overlap between the Bible Belt and Tornado Alley. If this is God's vengeance, God must be a liberal Democrat, for He keeps whopping down stuff in red states.

On one end, we have your reformed-types who want to give God credit for everything, good, bad and ugly, lest that dreaded free will get into the mix. That can lead to a bad case of fatalism, for we can do nothing on our own. That makes sense from a salvation stand point, but from a day-to-day living standpoint, it can be discouraging, especially if circumstances don't seem to fit into any good plan for your good.

On the other end, we have your more Arminian crowd who puts the onus on the believer to get things done. When you couple that with a hands-on God of charismatic thought, you get a Word of Faith framework that gives God the credit and the faithless the blame; if you were truly faithful, God would bless you, and since you're not being blessed, you must not be faithful. That's not encouraging to the person struggling through things like bad health or depression.

Somewhere in the middle is a livable spot where things are. Not due to a lack of faith or a micromanagement from above, but just are. Rather than blame yourself or blame God, it might be more comforting to have bad things just happen.

Our faith then is walked out by making the best of whatever happens. When bleep happens, make some fertilizer out of it, getting things to grow despite the bleep.

 

The Idyls of March

We're having one of those premature-spring day where we've hit 70 in Michigan. Of course, you have to wear shorts, or, like the buff youth walking past the restaurant just now, wearning nothing but shorts. The fans are on at my pizza joint, likely for the first time this calander year.

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I didn't do any post-redneck-primary blogging, but Tuesday was a good day. Newt was shut out of any southern wins that might give him credibility as a viable candidate going forward. Barring some major blow-up from either campaign, the path to seeing a GOP convention turing to Newt is rather limited.

He does have a following of economic conervatives who want something less establishmentarian than Romney and something less preachy than Santorum (and something a few parsecs closer to Earth than Paul). Those of use of a certian age will fondly remember Newt from his speaker days; others of that same certain age will view him as the Devil's henchman, complete with the morals of an alley cat.

Hence, ain't gonna happen, Newton. Almost, but not quite.

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Good news for Detroit fans-Megatron reupped with a megadeal-$132 million. He still have a year to go before free agency, but he had a big cap number for this season, so the Lions locked him in early.

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The Tigers finally didn't tie, winning one in the 10th after having three 10-inning ties. 9-1-3 look like a soccer record.

Here is the Church, Here is the Foreclosure Sign....

Here's a couple of related stories. One is a piece on increased foreclosures on churches; the recesssion has hit donations and increased the need for benevolence at the same time. It also points out the hubris of many churches that growth always keeps going and donations will continue to follow that nice trend line on the annual report. The Crystal Cathedral is a good case study of what happens when those trend lines don't match reality.

One downside of a congregational polity is that you don't have a denomination to bail you out if you get into financial hot water; other like-minded churches might donate some funds to keep you afloat, but big troubles will often have you on your own and on the street (or in rented facilities).

If you do have a denominational polity, Big Daddy can bail you out. Cleveland saw that this week as the Vatican pulled rank on a diocese church-closing plan, reopening 13 of the 50 parishes slated to close. Parishioners of the baker's dozen put in a plug to keep their struggling churches open and managed to be heard in Rome. The Catholic Church isn't a democracy, but that doesn't mean that the bosses don't listen, especially if it is an issue that isn't doctrinal like church closures.

Of course, the LA Diocese is getting creative on church space, buying the Crystal Cathedral off the Schuller clan and starting an innovative Levitating Mass.

Vote for Pedro

I had a chuckle going through the baseball news and finding the name of a Pedro Strop in the Oriole's organization. With an 0.73 ERA in 12 relief stints last year, he's doing better than his brother Jacques Strop, who's an actor now, nominated for Best Supporting Role.

Half a Trillion

That's what Apple is worth- it has a market cap (price*shares outstanding) of $515 billion as we go to press. That's over a $100B more than Exxon, the runner up in market cap.

Strangely, Apple isn't overpriced. It earned just under 33 billion dollars last year, giving it a modest price-to-earnings ratio of 15.72. That PE ratio is normal for the computer industry, and if you think Apple's prospects with its iPhones and iPads and other iCandy is better than those mere mortals in their wake, them Apples might be a steal at a new record of $552 a share.

A stock split might be an order, but with odd lot costs being a lot less than in the bad old days, that might not be as much as an issue as it used to be.

Monday Moanin'

Here's some progress in the world. El Salvador is having elections and the conservative Arena party is poised to get a plurality of the seats with the ruling leftists coming a close second. Since they have a presidential system, we have the prospect of divided government.

That's better than the 70s and 80s, when Arena backers would hire goon squads to kill leftists (or folks they thought were of the left) as the left took to the hills in a civil war; now the left is in the presidency.

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Odd story out of Iraq, where some youngsters have taken up a goth-like meme, rebelling against local Muslim culture; that's gotten a few "emos" a bad case of lead poisioning from traditionalists who aren't above killing infidels.

I'm thinking of the bus scene from Star Trek 3, where a punker is defiantly blaring the eternal classic I Hate You on his boom box (thank the Lord for iPods to save us from the modern dreck in public places); Spock give him his Vulcan nerve pinch to KO him and turns off the noise, getting a sitting O from the rest of the people on the bus. Americans don't go to the point of thinking such youth need killin', but one can see where a culture where jihad is a valid option might go for the kill at their native punks.

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That was the movie where Kirk described Spock as doing too much LDS in the 60s. A guy who really was into LDS in the 60s (doing a mission tour in France in the late 60s) is poised to win Mississippi tomorrow. Rassumssen had Romney up eight while PPP has him down to Newt by 2. There aren't too many Mormons in Rebel territory, but the Casino Coast might have a few more-secular folks than the Squirrel Revival image might invoke; former Gov. Barbour has endorsed Romney, which might help.

It's probably do-or-die time for Newt as a serious player. If he wins both Alabama and MS, he has some bragging rights and can bring a large block of Southern delegates to Tampa. If he loses both (even close calls), he'd be hard pressed to go forward and see his backers peel off to either Romney or Santorum. If he wins one and loses the other in a squeaker, he'll likely be cocky enough to muddle on.

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Welcome to a US nightmare in Afghanistan, where a soldier went rogue and killed 16 civilians. No word as to why as of yet and no violent protest has been reported. The lack of backlash is interesting; when a threat to burn a Koran in Florida gets a murderous response, an actual slay ride by a US soldier gets crickets chirping by comparison.

If this gets the responce it could easily get, we might need to pack our bags and get in the practice of Preditor-droning the Taliban from a distance rather than try to build a country that can provide a viable alternative to a harsh jihadish theocracy.

Banishing the Cylinder Dance

There's one Goodyear mini-ad (for the quick "sponsored by" slots) where the blimp deflects a ball towards the rim, then taps it in on the rebound. Minor problem; using American rules, Mr. Blimp's basket would be waived off for offensive goaltending (basket interference to be technical) since the ball is "in the cylinder" on the put-back. It would be legal under FIBA international rules, since balls are fair game once they hit the rim there.

The D-League has been playing with using the FIBA goaltending rules for the last two years and Henry Abbott over at TrueHoop is giving it a thumbs up. That would let rebounders freely go after balls rather than do that "can't touch it, can't touch it" hand dance while it's in the cylinder; in a macho world of rebounding, nothing is quite as wimpy as that cylinder hand jive. Well... maybe some of the Oscar-caliber floppers.

Profit Centers and Prophet Centers

The church bulletin was plugging a retirement planning seminar; that's nice.... if you have a job and disposable income to put into a retirement plan.

Retirement planning is often a money-maker for charities (the local Christian radio station does those quite a bit), as they'll include a plug to include the church in their will and to do vehicles that spit out yearly retirement income and leave a remainder to the church once you assume ambient temperature.

I was reading a 2009 post of mine where an Akron megachurch I went to in grad school got dissed for being anti-poor; churches tend to lean towards the successful and can tend to ignore the poor, especially the poor that are already in the church, as such anti-poverty ministries are often seen as outreaches rather than helping the folks in the flock.

Of course, the Bible was on the case from Day 1-James 2 comes quickly to mind

¹ My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. ² Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. ³ If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” ⁴ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

We can head there if all the church activities outside of Sunday worship seem to come with a price tag; $10 for this class, $30 for this Valentine's Day dinner, $17.50 for the book for that class, $5 for goodies at the teen outing (that's not my current church, by the way, but a image from a past church that shall remain nameless). The church is supposed to be more of a prophet center than a profit center and making church activities (a) have a price-tag and (b) have a default of "going Dutch" can scare people of lesser means off.

Sports Once-Around

It's an interesting time of year, where basketball and hockey are in swing, golf is back as well, baseball is in Spring Training and football free agency is due to start in Earnest and many other towns this week.

• Tiger pulled out of Doral with a bum Achilles-I wasn't watching that tourney since I was more glued to the college basketball, but they had a good field with a number of young stars in the hunt, with Justin Rose winning. We're almost in a post-Tiger era, with Rory McIlroy already at #1 in the rankings and the "heir obvious" per Gene Wojciechowsk; Rory's more fun to watch than Tiger with far less baggage, more like the Tiger circa 1995.
• The Tigers are doing nicely, starting the Grapefruit League 6-1-2; that looks like a soccer record, given the two 10-inning ties (they'll call spring games if they run out of pitchers they want to use) they played this weekend. They haven't had to fumigate after Cabrera plays third and Brandon Inge is hitting and playing solid D at second.
• Peyton Manning was let go during last week by Indy and seems to be heading west, with Denver and Arizona being two possible landing spots; a Denver signing then starts a second soap opera in figuring out where Tebowmania will light. Arizona will likely ditch Kevin Kolb if they win the derby, since Kolb has a roster bonus due at the end of the week himself. An interesting side-point is that Arizona is now a viable spot for a superstar to want to go to, a transformation not unlike the Clippers leading the NBA Pacific.
• Speaking of the NBA, the Pistons are only three games out of a playoff spot now that Linsanity is coming back to earth. Whether that is false hope or not is a good question, but a nice run as of late has taken them out of the Anthony Davis derby.
• Speaking of Davis-he has developed a three-point touch the last week. He is 3-10 from long range for the last five games after being 0-5 for his young career prior to that. In yesterday's win over Florida, Davis drained a three like he knew what he was doing-"where'd that range come from?" was my thought. No, he's not the second coming of Larry Bird from beyond the arc, but just the prospect that he can shoot from there makes him even more of a catch should he go the one-and-done route.
• Will Izzo ever play Payne and Nix at the same time? They have been a great tag-team at center this year, but in a post-Draymond Green era, they might want to have them as a tandem, especially if young Mr. Costello from BC Western can back them up off the bench next year.

What's Wrong With a "Brokered" Convention?

Unless Mitt Romney starts to make a move, we're looking at a scenario where he doesn't get to Tampa with enough deglegates. Most of the other contenders have a bigger hill to climb to get there-

With his opponents, Republican strategists and the media pointing out that "delegate math" is heavily against him, Rick Santorum struck back on Sunday, saying that the delegation projections aren't great for Mitt Romney or other Republican contenders at this point in the race either.

"This isn't a mathematical formula," the former Pennsylvania senator said on NBC's "Meet the Press." When host David Gregory pointed out that Santorum would have to get 61 percent of the vote in upcoming GOP primaries to win the nomination, Santorum noted that Romney would need to win roughly 50 percent of that vote in order to become the nominee himself. "On the current track that we're on now, Gov. Romney doesn't get to that number."

Conservatives usually don't like looking overseas for inspiration give American exceptionalism, but party leadership conventions in other countries rarely come in with a working majority for one candidate unless it is an incumbent, even ones like Canada were a primary-of-sorts of party members is held.

The interesting thing here is that the old notion of a "brokered convention" assumes that there are party bosses who can broker such a deal in a smoke-filled room, as the old meme goes. Not only would the conference room in 2012 be most likely smoke-free if not virtual in nature, but there would be no stogie-packing brokers to be patching together a deal.

The delegates (and the party at large) would be looking at who would best match their policy desires and who can send Obama packing to the Kennedy Center (or some law-prof slot) come January. It will probably be one of the candidates currently going, since they've been oppoed into the ground and most of the other prospective candidates (with the exception of Palin) haven't gotten that white-glove treatment as of yet.

Horse-trading is limited by law. Santorum can't offer Newt a cabinet position for backing him per law, although putting Newt in the cabinet would be a good place for him; we could bring him out from behind the fine china every so often.

So, pointing out that Santorum or Gingrich can't easily get to a majority is not a debate-stopper. Romney seems stuck in the 30s and can't break through to a majority, so letting a convention cogitate on the alternatives for the summer wouldn't be a bad idea.

Draymond Green as an NBAer- Greg Kelser or Grant Hill?

Here's an interesting observation on college stars. Let me use Jason King's ESPN piece on his Wooden Award vote as a starter and this Draft Express rating list for the 2012 draft-(the ESPN stuff is behind an Insider wall)

(1) Thomas Robinson (4th rated for draft)

(1a forced to 2) Anthony Davis (top rated)

(3) Tyler Zeller (9th rated)

(4) Draymond Green (98th rated)

(5) Doug McDermott (70th rated)

Green gets little respect from the draftniks. He is a bit of a tweener in that at 6'7", he doesn't quite fit as a power forward and would be a tad slow as a small foward. Greg Kelser fit that bill coming out of MSU in 1979, as his rep got padded by being on the receiving end of a lot of great Magic Johnson passes for the Spartan title team that year; the Pistons went a bit overboard in bringing the hometown boy on board, picking him 4th overall. Kelser didn't quite fit as a 3 or a 4 in the NBA and has settled in as the color-man for Pistons TV.

However, Green has more girth than Kelser and is a better passer and shooter. Green has a good touch from three-point range, while Kelser was 5/30 career from behind the arc.

Grant Hill might look more like what Green would extraplotate to. Green has better range and rebounding ability, while Hill is a better defender at the 3. I don't see him putting up 20 points, 6 rebounds and five assists as a rookie like Hill did, but he'd be in the hunt if someone were to give him the chance.

The Pistons could do far worse than use one of their second-round picks on Green, and a mid-first rounder wouldn't be out of the question. He outplayed Jarod Sullinger this year, and Sully's ranked #5 on the draft list. Yes, Sully's 6'9" but doesn't play much taller or wider than Green and Green has a better-rounded game. Green's two years older, too, which give him less potential.

The 6'7" scares people and the senior scares people-"if he were that good, why did he stay all four years?" Someone will get a discount on Green.

 

 

Excellence in Burpcasting

I'm not with the conservative paradigm again; Breitbart's death did not leave me with the level of loss others did, nor do I want to go backing Rush for his latest foray into bad taste and poor political judgement. Advertisers are over-reacting, for a PG-13 Rush is nothing new; the Culture War button got pushed and good PC folks answered the call to abandon the good ship EIB.

Is there a double-standard? Not really.

If a liberal calls a conservative woman a slut, it is a generic insult, not a questioning of her sexual character; likewise, every guy who gets a anti-gay pejorative flung his way on a basketball court is set to be the next member of the Village People.

However, in this case, you had a woman who was in apparent need of birth control, which gets within hailing distance of earning the title, especially when Rush followed it up with a prurient request to watch her and her Obama-subsidized birth control in action. By that standard, Rush might get some fun watching my mom go through rehab with her Medicare-financed artificial knee; quite the party-starter, that one.

Also, you have a big talk-show host picking a fight with a previously-obscure liberal activist/law student, albeit one that became the poster girl for reproductive freedom for the left. Picking on Nancy Pelosi or another member of the congressional left would have been at Rush's weight class (pun not intended-he's trimmed down quite a bit since he got started).

Thus, Rush has a bit of a dressing-down coming. Not that it's the first time nor will it be the last. There are plenty of advertisers willing to pick up where the bailers left off and any station dropping Rush will see someone down the dial grab him up quickly. There's a market for what he does; all the left can do is make its minions steer clear.

One fringe benefit- any flak Rush is getting is stuff that isn't going the way of Rick Santorum or Republicans in general on the religious liberty-versus-contraception donnybrook. It took Super Tuesday off the front page long enough for Santorum to do well today.

Yes, liberal pundits get away with far more toxic rhetoric towards conservatives, but their clientelle is more used to R-rated language coming from their side and might feel prudish if they call them on it. That doesn't make two wrongs right.

Good at Making People Look Bad

I don't like the carpet-bomb-your-enemies style of politics that we're in these days. Thus, the story of Andrew Breitbart's passing leaves me a bit cold, as I don't have the warm spot in my heart that the conservative on-line big-shots have, for a lot of his shtick was to make liberals look bad.

That can be good in a lot of cases, but created collateral damage in others, like in the Shirley Sherrod case (where You-tubing her out of context cost her a job).

Here's an interesting first-reaction obit from Jonah Goldberg; it closes thus.

There will be lots of eulogies and obituaries for Andrew, including my own, talking about his politics and his beautiful wife and kids and his bottomless happy-warrior spirit. And that’s all true and right and appropriate. But people — particularly NRO readers — should know that Andrew’s accomplishments didn’t begin with his relatively recent fame and his gonzo antics. People will talk a lot about Shirley Sherrod and Anthony Weiner and that’s all fine and good. He’d like it, in fact. But he was a great, sweet, smart guy destined for great things long before he became a cultural touchstone. Indeed, his greatest accomplishment, I’m sure he would say, was marrying up and having four wonderful kids. And that too is something that you won’t see in his clips on YouTube.

By all accounts, he seemed to be a happy warrior and a hail fellow well met. Pat Buchanan seems much the same way in person; I still don't like Pat's ethnocentrism and nasty streak towards his enemies.

Breitbart was key in getting Drudge rolling and played a key role in getting the Huffington Post off the ground, although the later listed a bit more left than he hoped, shooting for a bipartisan online salon. That and other things will give him more than a bit part when the history of the blog era gets told.

I just don't like hating my enemies and prefer my pundits with a bit less bile.