Take a gander at the most recent national report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers.
America’s bridges rate ahead of our dams, drinking water, roads, schools, power grid, navigable waterways, and more.
When you’ve got a federal government — and a voting populace — that prioritizes tax cuts ahead of infrastructure, you can’t be too surprised.
Actual poll data from the Cleveland Indians’ official site the other day, just after I voted for Tris Speaker:
For anyone who cares, these results are a bit like asking which doctor discovered penicillin, and seeing Alexander Fleming come in third to Patch Adams and Dr. Ruth, with the other nominees being maybe Phil McGraw, Julius Erving, and Johnny Fever.
Kenny Lofton is a six-time all-star, no question, with eight or nine outstanding seasons in his 17-year career. Grady Sizemore has become an elite player in his three-plus years, you betcha.
Tris Speaker, however, was dominant for 19 of his 22 years, with a lifetime On Base Percentage (OBP) 16 points higher than Lofton (whose strength is getting on base) managed in his best year, and a career On Base plus Slugging (OPS) 20 points better than anything Sizemore (who strength is his combination of leadoff and power skills) has ever achieved. And Speaker amassed those superior numbers while playing most of his career in the dead-ball era.
Speaker is also considered one of the best defensive center fielders of all time, the game’s classic play-shallow go-get-it guy. That Tris Speaker was possibly the finest position player in Cleveland history should be no more obscure than knowing that Babe Ruth was once pretty good for the Yankees.
A glance at the stats will show that Earl Averill is the second-best player on the list; he’s also the only one besides Speaker in the Hall of Fame. The inclusion of the popular Rick Manning is simply bizarre; he had exactly two good seasons before becoming an average-at-best player for the rest of his career. Meanwhile, seven-time all-star Larry Doby, who broke the color barrier in the American League and had eleven stellar seasons, belongs on this list more than Sizemore, Lofton, Butler, and certainly Manning.
I bother not because baseball matters — it doesn’t, of course — but because a supremely simple question has been asked of a public which (a) is actively interested and (b) has excellent, unfettered access to the basic facts, none of which are hard to understand. And almost everyone involved has whiffed spectacularly, including the Indians employee asking the question.
And now I imagine even attempting another discussion about Iraq, Iran, health care, or anything else where the basic facts aren’t quantified to the third decimal point.
Agh.
Maybe next year…
The 2007 Rocketbelt Convention will be held on August 11th and 12th at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station.
Judging from the photos, it’s safe family fun.
Bring the kids! Bring extras, in case you lose one! Strap ’em in! Let ’em fly! Find ’em later!
How on earth did I not know about this?
I mean, rocketbelts!
How is it possible there aren’t carpools forming from every corner of the nation?
Link via BoingBoing, which you must read every day.
The 2007 Rocketbelt Convention will be held on August 11th and 12th at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station.
Judging from the photos, it’s safe family fun.
Bring the kids! Bring extras, in case you lose one! Strap ’em in! Let ’em fly! Find ’em later!
How on earth did I not know about this?
I mean, rocketbelts!
How is it possible there aren’t carpools forming from every corner of the nation?
Link via BoingBoing, which you must read every day.
Not a military invasion; quite the opposite.
U.S. immigration to Canada is now at a 30-year high. The rate has doubled since Bush was elected.
Meanwhile, the rate of Canadian immigration to the U.S. has dropped 20% in the last 12 months alone.
While we’re on it, the Canadian dollar is now worth US$0.94. It was US$0.66 when Bush took office. As I mentioned a couple of months ago, the dollar has lost about a third of its value against the euro (not to mention a scary number of other world currencies) since Bush took office.
The greenback is now down over 42 percent against the loonie on Bush’s watch.
Where can I trade in my Benjamins for some Robert Bordens?
