Howard Owens

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Armed Liberal and I attended the same party recently. AL writes about a discussion with a man he calls "The Journalist in the Hat."

Here's what I know about him: He worked for an alt-weekly in a large Western-state city (since he isn't around, apparently, to defend himself, I won't describe him further.).

His position, as near as I can tell, is that journalists are not biased and that what we get fed by the mainstream media isn't biased. Journalists as a whole, I believe his position would be, try hard to be fair and honest.

I joined the conversation late, just as he was saying this. I said, "Bullshit." He persisted. "Bullshit," I said a second and a third time. At which point he walked away.

An hour or so later, I approached him and apologized for my harshness and rudeness. We then picked up the conversation again. He restated his opinion. I told him I disagreed, at which point he broke off the conversation again, not willing to listen to my side of it.

Keep in mind, he already knew by now that I wasn't just some blogger with no experience in the media. He knew where I worked. He knew where I used to work. He knew I was speaking from experience.

One note -- I find it ironic that a man who has spent his career at alt-weeklies, where bias is a badge of honor, would so vehemently deny bias in the media.

What I wanted to tell The Journalist in the Hat was, "Look, this isn't even just me saying it." At the time, I very much had in mind this quote from Mark Halerpin.

When I speak of media bias, I'm not suggesting, as some do, that there is a conspiracy to promote a particular agenda. Nor am I suggesting that any one reporter, or any cabel of reporters, is purposely destorting the truth. We all have our filters, and the filter -- as Halerpin duely points out -- is a filter of experiences, prejudices, worldviews that color how we shape what we report. Even reporters who struggle mightly against this (and I think they are few and far between) sometimes fall victim to such biases. What I wanted to tell The Journalist in the Hat was that not enough journalists, in my opinion, work to surpress their innate biases.

The beauty of blogs, I think, is this cacphony of voices -- informed as they are by speciality backgrounds and educations, different viewpoints, differing agendas and politics -- is a check against the institutional biases of the media (where it is beyond reasonable argument that most reporters and editors are liberal and/or Democrat).

That's what I wanted to tell The Journalist in the Hat. But he didn't want to listen. Too bad.

At the beginning of every season, baseball fans and pundits play a little game -- who will win and who will lose. You have about as much chance of meeting a space alien in your Jacuzzi as you do of guessing the season's outcome on March 30. As hard as it is to predict the winners, it is even harder to actually win.

With the exception of the Atlanta Braves and the New York Yankees, and for the time being the Oakland Athletics, most teams and their fans know that chances at the ultimate prize, a World Championship are few and far between. The odds against all but the elite franchises who made the playoffs this year playing next October are slim, at best. Most teams watch decades pass between post-season appearances.

As the Florida Marlins celebrated their victory over the Chicago Cubs tonight, Fox focused its camera on one little old red-haired lady wiping tears from her eyes. At best, she was only a little girl the last time the Chicago Cubs played a World Series game. There is some chance, given the difficulty of the task and the vagaries of the game, that the Cubs will not make another post season appearance within the remainder of her lifetime. Harsh to say, but a possible reality. I hope I'm wrong, but if you look at the 2003 Cubs, you don't see the seeds a potential dynasty. You see a team with flaws, aging stars and only a couple of young studs, who struggled to win 88 games this year and make the post season only by virtue residing in a weak division. The Cubs had the worst winning percentage of any team in the playoffs.

Baseball fans, true baseball fans, share in the disappointment of Cubs fans the nation over. It would have been special to see the Cubs finally make it to the World Series. It will be special, yet, to see the Boston Red Sox make it the World Series. But the Red Sox face a daunting task. Tomorrow, the Red Sox must beat the New York Yankees for the second straight day in Yankee Stadium. A daunting task. So while there will be no dream series between the Cubs and Red Sox, we may yet see the Sox in the big championship. It sure would beat the hell out of a Yankees vs. Marlins series.

Tony Pierce

I'm not much of a Cubs fan, so you tell me. Is this the worst moment in Cub history?

Moments in history are forks in time and space -- subtle changes, slightly different choices can have profound, unpredictable results. Tonight, a Cubs fan snatched a crucial second out from the glove of left fielder Moises Alou. But if Alou had caught the ball, and Castillo had put some pine under his butt instead of first base under his feet (via a walk), would the Cubs have avoided a disastrous 8-run inning? If these blue-cap wearing fans along the left-field line had fought every ball-hungry instinct in their body and recoiled rather than reached for that little white orb of cowhide and yarn, would Cub fans the world over be celebrating a trip to the World Series tonight? If the people in those nice box seats were not also souvenir hounds by breeding, would more than a half-century of frustration been erased?

We have no way of knowing.

The pragmatists will argue that Mark Prior had every opportunity to get Luis Castillo out after the play, but failed. Or that it was clear that Prior was tiring, that his location was slipping and his curve ball had gone flat, and one moment in the game was not the real harbinger of doom. Maybe Dusty Baker should have lifted Prior sooner. How would things be different if not for a fielding error by Alex S. Gonzalez?

We'll never know the answer to those questions either.

It's clear, though, that a few fans doing what fans do naturally will become the moment in history no Cub fan ever forgets. The only way these fans will be saved from infamy is if the Cubs win tomorrow night. Otherwise these fans become the Bill Buckners, the Donnie Moores and the Fred Merkles of the 21st Century.

My sympathy is with these fans tonight, and all Cubs fans everywhere.

How can a conservative fuck like me spend an evening talking to a bunch of liberals and have a good time? Well, when they're reasonable people like Matt Welch, Brian Linse, Steve Smith, Kevin Drum, Mickey Kaus and Armed Liberal -- one can have a very good time, especially when the host is as accommodating as Linse, who not only opened up his liquor cabinet and ordered pizza, he also offered fine selections from his humidor. So what is there to complain about? And Cathy, sorry the picture of you and Kaus didn't really turn out.

UPDATE: Cecile found us unsafe!

Then I went to another small circle of four male bloggers including Matt Welch. Some mention of Reason and politics here and there interested me as I noticed that they all wore glasses.



I popped a carrot into my mouth and went back to comfortable territory, Amy Alkon.

Amy is indeed safe territory. I've been reading her column in the VCReporter for at least six years now. She's the best advice columnist in the universe, and if your newspaper isn't running her column, your newspaper is downright primative. Amy, btw, is as lovely and charming as her writing. It was a thrill to meet one of my contemporary prose heroes.

P.P.S: Cecile's Mom also has a round upof the Linse Affair. And I still say she needs her own domain and the more customizable MT for her blog. It's brand, and if you're a freelancer giving away your pearly prose on the net, you should at least (IMHO) get paid back in better branding. But that's just me.

OK, and it's confession time ... at 3 a.m. last night I only looked at my pictures in preview mode ... and I thought Cathy's eyes were closed, so I skipped over the pic I'm including in this update. Just now I opened it in PhotoShop and I think it really capture's Cathy's charm and Mickey's ... um ... Mickeyness. Does the picture say they're married or divorced? I don't know. I vote for married.

P.P.P.S: More from Drum.

BTW: Key piece of information left out so far ... the whole reason for the party, really, was so we could all meet Perry de Havilland and Adriana Cronin of Samizdata.net. I spent a good deal of time talking with Perry, who is quite the urbane Londoner, and London being just about my favorite city that I can't afford to live in on earth, it was fun talking with him. Here's more photos. Also, check out Perry's post on regulatory insanity, which was a topic we discussed briefly.

One of the great philanthropists of the era, and a woman who is nothing short of a hero in San Diego,

This is Sal's Mexican Inn, a restaurant in Oxnard I've been hearing about for years, but have never visited.

This afternoon, my wife announced that I was taking her to lunch and I was taking her to Sal's.

The story of Sal's dates back to 1947 when Mary Lopez, the 20-year-old wife of Sal Lopez opened a restaurant in Oxnard. Sal was working in LA, but within a week, business was booming and Sal was working in the restaurant full time to help out.

In the early 1950s, a larger location on Oxnard Boulevard became available, but Sal didn't have enough cash on hand for the down payment. In walked Mary and her secret savings account. The Mexican Inn was born. The Lopez's have added on two more dining rooms since they first opened, and one of the cooks (they now employee 55 people), has been working there since the Mexican Inn first opened. He started at 14 as a dishwasher (this whole history is printed on the menu ... I didn't actually interview anybody to get this story!).  Sal died in 2000, and one of his daughters runs the restaurant (the rest of the children are spread out across America as small business owners or successful professionals).

Sal's is the kind of place where you sit in brown wooden booths, with a framed picture of the entire family in white gowns and tuxedos hanging on one wall (we guess this picture was the Lopez's 50th wedding anniversary photo), and on the other wall is a HUGE picture of downtown Oxnard from 1969. There's also a "We won't forget 9/11" sign by the front door.

The food is your standard Mexican fair -- tacos, enchiladas, tacitos, burritos, with rice and beans. The salsa is perfection, the chips overly crisp and hard, but the meal was quite good. We had a Mexican BBQ dish we'd never seen before. It was good, but I wished I had ordered the cheese enchiladas. The tortilla's were homemade and delicious. I love slathing tortillas in butter, sprinkling a fine layer of salt on and dipping them in enchilada sauce.  The tortilla's were good enough that when I go back, that's what I'll order.

This morning I did a little catch up on Charlie Rose and caught an interview from a couple of days ago with Mark Halperin, political director for ABC News. Halperin offered what I see as a prescient insight into the kind of media coverage Arnold Schwarzenegger can expect ... and keep in mind, this quote is coming from one of the card-carrying members of the East Cost Media Elite.

Let me tell you something that your viewers, I think, particularly should be a aware of as they follow the chance Arnold Schwarzenegger has to succeed. Most of the news your viewers, the news and information your viewers are going to get about Arnold Schwarzenegger the man and the emerging politician is going to come from media that's a little more radically left of center, that is dismissive of Arnold Schwarzenegger because he's a movie star, and because of his accent, that's dismissive of Arnold Schwarzenegger's intellect and of his capacity to be a broad governor in terms of his ability to reach a broad coalition.

And they're going to be infused by friends of theirs that they see at cocktail parties and dinner parties who are more dismissive of him and feel about him the way a lot of Democrats felt about Ronald Reagan and feel about George W. Bush -- completely alienated from him; culturally in some ways; intellectually in some ways, and they believe on social issues, although he is liberal on a lot of social issues.

I think people who are looking at it through that filter may well miss a deeper intellect that your story may suggest and somebody with the capacity to achieve his goals than they are going to give him credit for.

Once again, I think, it will be up to bloggers to check the media bias and put things in context as much as possible. Fellow Bear Flag Leaguers, I take this as a call to arms. What do you think?

UPDATE: National Post column from Matt Welch on media coverage of the new governor.

If you haven't been watching baseball the last week, you haven't been paying attention to what you should be paying attention to. This may be shaping up as the greatest post season ever. It redeems the wild card and reminds us why baseball is the greatest sport in the world. No timed-sport, not football, basketball or hockey, can match the drama.

The Red Sox just won what may be the greatest division series since the advent of the wild card system. They came back from a 2-0 deficit to win the games they had to win, setting up the American League Championship all baseball fans would like to see -- the Yankees and Red Sox, two of the storied franchises in history, and the greatest baseball rivalry. So much history. So many reasons to care. You've gotta be dead or completely misunderstand the importance of sports not to enjoy this.

Not even a call just this minute from radical left-wingers knocking Arnold can distract me from what is the true matter of the moment. Yeah, I'll vote tomorrow, but I won't vote for your radical left-wing agenda, you "concerned women voters of California," as if you really cared about California, or women.

The Cubs and Marlins tomorrow -- the Cubs who haven't won a post season series since 1945. The Marlins who were supposed to be laughing stocks this season, but where charged by young guys like Miguel Cabrara and Dontrelle Willis to carry them to October.

Then you have the Braves and the A's. Two teams that have been so close so many times, but can't seem to come through when it really matters. It's drama, but at some point you have to say, "Maybe you guys don't really deserve it."

What could be better than a Red Sox vs. Cubs World Series. Certainly not the California "Quagmire" Recall.

Now onto the league championships. As for the recall, do as I do -- Yes on the Recall, vote FOR Arnold. This is the only way to tell the Sacramento fat cats that we're pissed and we want them to fix this damn state!

UPDATE:
Matt Welch also knows good baseball when he sees it, and bad baseball, too.

I'm pretty proud of myself ... I wrote this RV Rental Calculator in JavaScript almost entirely from scratch. It may well be one of the most complicated programming assignments I've ever taken on. And it's in a language I'm still a novice with. I hope the client likes it (I did this on spec, so no guarantee I'll get paid for it ... I just wanted the challenge of doing it ... spent about 50 hours on it over the last nine months) Let me know if you find any bugs. (BTW: If you're wondering why I didn't post at all this past weekend, now you know.)

Today's media never practices pack, gotch! journalism. No never.

So you want to be a rock and roll star ... all you need is a laptop and some good software.

The difference is subtle, but mountain music and bluegrass are not the same thing. Both revolve around banjos and fiddles, but where bluegrass strikes the high, lonesome sound and aching harmonies, mountain music is more closely the white man's blues. Mountain music tends to get overlooked, but the tunes of Appalachia are a deep well of human emotion.

So why is it that the most interesting mountain music I've heard in a while is being made by a man who lives in Seattle?

Danny Barnes new CD "Dirt on the Angel" is a lovefest of mountain music, mixed in with a few other genre twisting arrangements, touching on avante garde jazz and pop ballads, but it is the fiddle, guitar and banjo employed impecably that makes "Dirt" a must-own CD for music lovers. Barnes strikes a note of authenticity that only somebody who has absorbed the music into his soul can achieve.

My love for rockabilly never wavers. But rockabilly as a popular trend peaks from time to time. For good and ill, lots of young musicians discover rockabilly and they form bands. A few of these bands get to make records. Most of them are simply rockabilly by numbers. Fit the formula. Do your "mystery train" shuffle, your Travis picking, and slap the bass.

In the final days of Napster, I signed up for the service and download all of the rockabilly I could find. Old and new.

Tonight I started trolling through the archives ... and came across a band that certainly deserves more fame than it ever archived -- the Road Kings. As far as I can tell, the Road Kings released one CD in 1999 (though some of the tracks I grabbed off of Napster are not from that album), but they managed to take the genre places neither Brian Setzer nor Rev. Horton Heat could ever manage. It's still rockabilly, but it's also rock and funk and soul. There's also enough musicianship going on to keep even the most exacting aficionado revved up.

I've never been man enough to ask this question -- where the hell is Silver Lake? Sgt. Stryker is, and Cathy Seipp is up to the task.

As I threatened previously, I've written and recorded a song. It's a political song. Those of you who think I spend too much time on this theme already are going to figure I've completely lost my marbles. That's OK. This stuff is supposed to be fun, isn't? Here's the song ... Bush Lied.

Ken Layne is peddling some of his old crap. I'm a sucker. I bought a copy.

I never heard the Outriders before. The band was history by the time I met Layne, but not by much. But I should have known these guys. Rick Wilkens and I have crossed paths several times over the years, with many friends in common. Paul Denton played in the Road Hogs, which as I've said before, Ken Layne used as a backing band, which is how I met Layne, because the bass player for the Road Hogs was my best friend from high school (and roommate at the time), Todd Hilton. Todd and I were once bandmates. If you remember how Cream used to do band geologies, you can notate all of this some where for future reference.

And how are the Outriders? Not bad. If I had been in San Diego during their salad days (while these longhaired shitkickers were smoking weed and doodling around with six-stringed instruments, I was off protecting my country from the Rooskies), I would have liked these guys. There's plenty to admire here -- good (though not as good as Layne and Denton would later get) musicianship, tight arrangements, good recording quality and songwriting that at least holds your interest. If all that sounds like a left-handed compliment, it's only because I don't want to oversell these guys. They were young, and it shows, but there is also a lot of promise, promise that Layne's later work helps validate. Ditto Denton.

Speaking of music, I've dug my old Dell NT Workstation out of mothballs and am turning it into a dedicated digital audio machine. It's going to server one purpose -- recording music. Mostly, it will help me turn some of my LPs into CDs. I've found some cheap-o software that is supposed to help make this process easier. We'll see. I'm trying it out now by recording some Julie London for Billie (she love's London's version of "Summer Place"). I'm also hoping it will make it easier to digitize some of my own compositions, such and as few as they are (I can hear the stampede away from my site now with the threat of me putting my own music up).

Here's your chance to get a preview of what Ken Layne's been promising for oh these many weeks -- a track off his new CD, "Mama, Take Another Stand." It's not the final mix, but Ken was kind enough to IM me the link last night and I already burned it on CD. Listened to it in the Toy on the way to work and on the way home. It makes that big old beast rock like it was on a mountain trail. Just like Layne promised, the song is filthy, nasty, funky and freaky -- big drums (presumably to be made bigger in the final mix), heavy bass and devilish guitars. Imagine Gram Parsons backed by Uncle Tupelo, produced by George Clinton, with Stevie Vai from "Cross Roads" on guitar. The sound is already stingray sharp and clear. I look forward to hearing the final mix.

I spent most of the evening recording my own new composition. A little political ditty I hope to subject you to within the next several days. I've got an OK take, but I want to do it a few more times and refine my performance -- it will still suck, cause I have very limited musical talent, unlike Layne, but I've never been afraid to embarrass myself.

Speaking of embarrassing -- the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have for more seasons than not, been a better team than the Padres, but try as they might, they have a hard time beating the Padres. Tonight, they played their last game against the Padres in San Diego Stadium. Their overall record there, 152-154, including tonight's loss, which officially eliminated the Dodgers from playoff contention. Words can't express how good that makes me feel.

As for this post -- I take it all back. It was a stupid idea. I'm not entirely comfortable with Arnold's performance -- it tried to interrupt AH too much (regardless of how rude she was, it wasn't gentlemanly) -- but McClintock would still have a hard time winning. Also if AS dropped out to help TM, you'd be more likely to see AH and Camejo drop out to help Cruz. And if TM drops out, you might see at least AH drop out. So the best thing, maybe, is for both GOPers to stay, but for the party to still find a way to fall in line behind AS, as seems to be happening.

I am very much in the "anybody but Cruz" camp. After Davis, we can ill afford a socialist like Cruz in the office, not while the left wing of the Dems control the state Legislature.

You know, if the Bee had said, "We've noticed that Weintraub's blog is really popular, and we believe that it has a future as a viable part of our publication mix, and because we want to ensure its continued success, we've decided to include Weintraub's postings as part of our regular editorial process. Weintraub's blog entries will now be reviewed by an editor." I don't think very many bloggers would have complained. In fact, most of us would have applauded the move as a sign that blogs are coming of age in big media.

Sorry, no time to add links ... but read Matt Welch today on this topic ... Welch blog rolled on the right. (links TK this evening) Also, Instapundit links to a Tim Ruttan column that is worthwhile. (UPDATE: See, good to my word, I supplied the links.)

Many years ago and for several years, I subscribed to Columbia Journalism Review. Like most everybody I know, I read the funny mangled headlines in the back of the book first, then, like everybody I know, I read Darts and Laurels next.

The D&Rs were little vignettes about the good and bad things newspapers around the country were doing. You would read about publishers who killed stories about a car dealer paying off a city councilman because the car dealer was an advertiser and also belonged to the same country club, or the education reporter whose investigative work led to a school superintendent getting fired for spending the kid's lunch money on a stripper.

It was all that industry insider stuff that navel-gazing journalists like to gossip about.

Darts and Laurels are now on the web and I like to stop in once in a great while. Here's what I found today ... a Dart to the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Months before the advent of Billy Graham and his evangelical Christian crusade in San Diego this spring, the Union-Tribune began spreading the news of his coming, and on Sunday, May 4, it let out all the stops. An adoring, eight-page, special section (heralded on page one) was devoted entirely to Graham - "Eternal words from a man for eternity," ran the section's front-page blurb - his followers, his mission, and its music, not to mention such mundane matters as the availability of parking and food. Meanwhile, a story in the news section seemed to imply that the absence of rain from the stadium during a preview student gathering had been the result of an organizer's prayer. In all, from its first report about the newsworthy revival (December 28) to the final wrap-up on its great success (May 15), the Union-Tribune blessed Billy Graham's mission with an awesome sixty-one photos and at least 24,500 words. As one believer put it in a letter to the editor, "Your coverage . . . served to magnify the message that Graham continues to bring to the world."

Let's see, the biggest evangelist in history at the end of his career is making his final appearance in town. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people will attend, and even more care. The only events that are comparable in magnitude are the Super Bowl and the World Series -- on a purely local basis. Shouldn't it get the same kind of coverage such mega events get (and having seen the coverage of a Super Bowl, I'm sure an SB gets more, and just as gushing)?

Here's my complaint with this dart: It is being issued purely because the U-T did a lot of coverage. There is no mention of how the coverage might have been different or better, just that there is a lot of it. And gosh-gee, it's positive coverage. And gosh-darn-it, it emphasizes the religious beliefs of the people involved.

If I didn't know better -- and I'm not sure that I don't -- I might be concerned that there is some anti-Christian bias going on here.

And the media wonders why many Christians don't trust it.

Of course, there may be fair ground for criticizing the U-T coverage. Did the U-T delve into what happens to the millions of dollars BGC raise in a fair and objective manner? Did it question how many and what resources might be better spent within the city? Did it discuss the economic impact, for good or potentially ill? Did any story examine whether the Crusade is paying market value to rent the Stadium? Did any story examine whether workers at the Stadium were being fairly compensated for working the event? What about the cost of having police work overtime? Are people who are "saved" at a Crusade like to "backslide"? Are lives really changed, or is it all a facade? What studies have been done that can answer these questions beyond the merely anecdotal?

I don't know the answer to any of these questions, but the point is, presumably, neither does Gloria Cooper, author of the column, because she doesn't raise any of those issues herself. She doesn't suggest how the U-T coverage might have been better, only that there was too much of it. And given the magnitude of the event, it's a hard charge to sustain, which is why I raise this question for Ms. Cooper -- is there anti-Christian bias going on here?

Glenn Reynolds writes about the death penalty, but that's not what interests me about this post. What interests me is the picture he includes. Take a look. See the table with a couple of young women sitting at it? Just a few short months ago, Bob Benz, Glenn Franxman and myself were at that same table eating nachos, sipping gin and smoking fat cigars.

It was a good day.

I'd like to get back to that same table someday.

From Sunday morning, I Tivoed ABC's This Week. The subject, Ronald Reagan's letters just out in a new book. The point several people make in the show, including Nancy Reagan, the president was a compulsive writer. He wrote thousands and thousands of letters on every conceivable topic.

If he could, I'm sure Reagan would be a blogger. And he'd kick our collective ass.

Dan Weintraub is probably the smartest man in the state when it comes to analyzing California politics. His California Insider blog has rightfully become one of the most popular blogs in the state over the last couple of months. And rightfully so. Word for word, it is among the best blogs in the blogosphere. I want to read Weintraub unfiltered and uncensored. He's better off the cuff than most pundits edited twice over. Unfortunately, his publisher doesn't agree.

I went to see Phil the Barber today.

When I walked up, he was sitting outside with a friend watching the traffic on Main Street. Friendly greetings all around.

Phil's friend stood up. He was a big guy. Full white hair. He was at least as tall as me and at least as old as Phil.

After he left, Phil said, "That's my friend Herb. We played ball together. He was our first baseman. He could hit the ball a mile."

That would have been the dead ball era when Herb was hitting the ball a mile, and I can believe it.

Phil was in a chatty mood today. He wanted to reminisce a bit. With no other customers waiting, I was in his red leather chair for more than an hour. Phil would cut a bit of hair, stop and animate one of his stories with his hands.

Sample story: One time Phil's team played a negro league team from Los Angeles. Phil was playing center field. He was fast back then, he said. The gloves back then, of course, where nothing more than blocks of leather you stuck your hand in. They served to help you stop a hard-hit ball without breaking your fingers off, but did little to aid in actually catching the ball. In the ninth inning of the game, with the game on the line, a ball was hit to deep center. Phil had to run a long way, but he ran it down -- with his arm stretched out as far as it could go, and his fingers stretched out, he put glove on ball, but the ball just thudded off the brown leather and fell to the ground. There was no way to flex those old gloves quickly enough to catch a ball with just one hand.

"I think about that play almost every day," Phil said. "I wish I could have caught that ball."

Phil's team lost that game.

My first two drinks tonight were at a local dive bar I've wanted to check out for a long time, the Town and Country.

What a trip -- people in a bar smoking. Illegally, of course, but very cool.

One of the dumbest, most Nazi-like laws in California is that you can't smoke in bars. How stupid is that? You would think this is New York or something. Arnold should do something about that.  Daniel, if you still read this blog, next time you interview the True Lies guy, ask him if he'll fix our dumb ass smoking rules. If he will, he'll get my vote for sure (there's two issues a candidate can get my vote on -- support the war, support smoking in bars).

Now, I'm home, continuing the gin and tonic binge. Don't expect any more blogging tonight.

When you're byline is Gustavo Arellano, it must be easy to ego surf and find bloggers who have linked to your stories. Gustavo's got a pretty cool blog, too.

So, will Dodger fans take these as fighting words:

"It's obvious: The Giants are a better club than the Dodgers or us," Bochy said when asked about the disparity. "The Giants are the best team in the division. The Giants have more power than the Dodgers or us. The Dodgers and us are more similar teams. The Giants have a little more firepower."

Of course, it's true. But the truth hurts, doesn't it?

I've received a number of nice compliments recently. In a fit of shameless self-promotion, I'll share them.

Comments left on this site:

We don't add any comments, because there's nothing more we can say -- just more words, but yoru ideas were succinct enough.
Posted By foo bar, inside the hell of san francisco

You are a voice of sanity in sea of the absurd on both the left and right.
Posted By What? Dhaln, Minnesocold

I stumbled upon your site ... I don't know how. Despite being on different sides of the atlantic (or pacific) and of different opinions, I read your blog because I think you articulate your opinions like I wish I could mine. You usually provoke me to think about my views and convictions and to sometimes add to the debate. awe? I wish I had the time, the patience, the determination and the conviction that you seem to exhibit in your blog.
Posted By Peter McClymont, UK

Great Post! Good to see someone express what I & I think a lot of folks, feel, but cannot articulate as well as you
Posted By Tom Comerford, Dallas

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And from other bloggers:

Howard consistently puts out great stuff . . .
Justene Adamec

Thanks to Howard for the kind words (I think) over at his awe-some site. I think he was taken aback at my awe of his blog. I've mentioned Howard before. He is the web guru for a newspaper out in Southern California. Howard is a complulsive blogger, who speaks with strong conviction. We don't see eye-to-eye on many things political. We both share a love for baseball.
Peter McClymont

Howard Owens ... has a lileksian piece on record collecting that's worth your time.
Steve Smith

UPDATE: Glenn Esmay is kind enough to add to the list:

Have you ever noticed what a good blogger Howard Owens is?

My step-son would wake me up at 6 a.m. only for big news. The big news -- Johnny Cash died.

We knew he was sick. We knew June died a couple of months ago. We know he lived a full life. And we thank God for that life.

I will wear black today. It isn't saddness. It is thank you. There were few musicians in the 20th Century who had his integrity or who made greater music.

Here is an appreciation of JC I wrote earlier this year.

The more shocking news, and therefore the bigger news, is John Ritter died. Ritter, besides being a television star who actually deserved his fame, was also the son of California country musician Tex Ritter. Ritter's death is sad news. His death was unexpected, and it comes just after an unexpected comeback recently.

This site isn't built on any standard blogging software -- no MT, or GreyMatter, or Radio, or whatnot. It's home rolled.

One of the things I've been meaning to do, and just haven't gotten around it it, is create an RSS feed.

I should have an RSS feed, shouldn't I?

Well, thanks now to the alpha geek, I have one. Amazing.

And check out his pipe collection. I'm jealous.