And so . . .

. . . another week begins. I wish I could say I have a raft of good news to report.

Some might consider the fact that Gadhafi's rule in Libya is coming to a close some good news (here's a challenge: what's the right way to spell this guy's name? I have seen about four different ways.), but I will reserve judgment on that until we see what that gumbo of elements that toppled him will do now that they're in power. These rebels don't have any model to go by. Gaddafi has ruled that country as dictator for over 40 years. Governmental institutions will have to be built almost from scratch.

Would MLK have liked this memorial
to him? Not if he had any artistic
sensibilities, I'll bet.

The Martin Luther King memorial opened on the Washington DC mall. I don't know about you, but I think the thing is ugly. I suppose there's an argument to be made by portraying him as a 90-ton colossus, but I think the argument for understatement is stronger. This is an Ozymandias figure.

James Kuntsler reminds us in his usual acerbic fashion that nobody out there, especially politicians "can really articulate the direction in which history is propelling us. This 'recession-depression' narrative doesn't even adequately capture it. This is the end of a certain way of doing things - the industrial growth-spurt fiesta. We're in permanent contraction now." I have to agree with him when he avers that "History is not your therapist. This is the New Age you never expected." Right. We have no idea where we're going. About all we do know is we don't want to go there.

My fantasy baseball team, the Creaky Geezers, have gone into a weeks-long swoon after leading the league for most of the season. I lost three top starters, all of them of the do-not-trade type to the DL at the same time. Two are still there, probably till the beginning of September. This happened when the starting pitching stopped producing wins and quality starts. So with home runs, hits, RBIs plummeting as well, the team has sunk to 8th in the 10-team league. This, to be honest, really pisses me off because now I'm viewing the asses of some really dog teams.

On the other hand, the real life Rangers took the first game of a four-game series from the Boston Red Sox 4-0 behind strong pitching by C.J. Wilson. They still lead the AL West by 4 games.  Baseball keeps me sane.