Weekend Update

I guess that my first thought this weekend is to not piss off the Zionists.

I don't know if it matters if Syria and Iran are pulling the strings in Lebanon. At some point, we just may see The Promised Land extending north into Lebanon, east into Syria, and further east into Iran. And they may not give it back this time. Which may not be all that bad. Maybe the Jews can make things run a little more smoothly out there.

I'm starting to wonder if genocide is really all that bad. I mean, it looks like Israel is saying, well, Lebanon, if you can't control your own house, then it's an unfortunate consequence that we'll have to bomb some of the friendlies, as well as the bad guys. And can you really blame the Jews? You gotta take care of yours before you worry about others, right? Maybe? Let's assume that Hezbollah has a "no surrender" policy. If you continue the logic onto the end, if the Lebanese don't actively separate themselves from Hezbollah, then you're going to get Lebanese genocide. I don't know if it would be "intentional" like the stuff you see in Rwanda, but it would be interesting.

Actually, I'm sort of curious to see an escalation. I know that it'll send gas prices higher, but it may be worth it for the show. I'm kind of curious to see this whole thing play out. Will all the Arabs band together? Or will there be a Shiite/Sunni falling out? Will it matter, with the Jews and their superior technology and willingness to use it? Where will the Israeli borders be in a year? And what sort of cool CNN videos will we get? Will the U.S. get involved? Could be interesting to watch.

Transitioning into baseball, the Reds are still hanging in there, 1.5 games up on the Dodgers in the wild card race, and 4 games back of the Cards in the NL Central. They just made a trade that has been skewered on ESPN.com's Page 2, and a few other outlets. But, I think that the trade gives us a better chance at the post-season this year, and a better chance to win in the playoffs. We needed more pitchers, and now our bullpen actually looks solid. Closer in the back end. And 3 reliable arms in Coffey, Weathers, and Majewski, plus a young guy with talent in Bray. The gamble has to be that our offense is good enough without Kearns and Lopez, and that we improve our defense and bullpen enough to make a difference. If we make the playoffs, I think that it's worth it (Kearns gets expensive after this year, as does Lopez, I think).

Does anyone really care about a horse with a bum leg?

Anyway, probably no posts until August. Need to churn out my summer paper. Doesn't have to be great. Just can't have it suck. I guess that I'm sort of shooting for a B-. I know. I'm inspirational. Of course, I may find something interesting enough to post on. And I'm not really big on working, so you never know.

But, summer plans do continue. I'll be up in Chicago for the 2nd through the 4th (and hopefully 5th and 6th). I've got a conference that Wednesday and Thursday, and hopefully goofing off with some of the old troops that weekend. After that, I figure that there'll be a trip back to SC to see the folks. I think that at some point, I'll put up another poll question regarding where I'm going to stop off to cause trouble on the drive home. I'm debating between Lexington, Knoxville, Nashville, or maybe something completely different. We'll see.

-Chairman