The SoapBoxers

The day had finally arrived for Andrew McCormick.  Hours earlier, the sponsor of baseball’s All-Star game had officially announced what had been long rumored – they would be giving away free tickets, accommodations, and travel for ten lucky winners.

Andrew sent off an email that would reach millions of people across the country.

Dear Kosmopolitan Bank customer:

Earlier today, Kosmopolitan Bank, in partnership with Major League Baseball, announced a very exciting contest for our valued customers.  We are giving away sets of four (4) All-Star game tickets, hotel accommodations, and air travel to ten lucky winners!  The grand prize winner will throw out the first pitch at this year’s All-Star game.

To enter, simply visit the contest web site at www.kosmopolitanbankcontests.com.

On behalf of all of the employees of Kosmopolitan Bank, I would like to thank you for 75 years of patronage.  I hope to see you at the game!

Sincerely,

J. Robert Dobbs

CEO, Kosmopolitan Bank Holdings

The web site was not affiliated with the actual bank, of course.  Andrew had spent much time copying many visual elements from the bank’s actual web site.  Visitors to his site were greeted by a page that looked identical to the bank’s official site.  On the first screen, the visitors were asked for their mailing address (so that the tickets could be sent to them if they won) and their birthdate (must be 21 years old to enter).  After filling out the initial screen, they were directed to a second screen.  The second screen asked the visitors to verify that they were indeed a customer of Kosmopolitan Bank.  The screen asked for the visitor’s credit card number, but of course did not ask for the expiration date.  Asking for the expiration date raised too much of a red flag, and really, it wasn’t necessary.  It was child’s play to run the numbers against an authorization program to determine the correct expiration date.  After all, the number of dates was relatively finite.

Andrew sat down at the table and made himself a ham and swiss sandwich.  Certainly, it would only be a few minutes before the first numbers came dribble in, but he wouldn’t be able to project the extent of his harvest for at least an hour or two.  In his early days as an information broker, he would sit, transfixed, at his computer, waiting for the first couple of numbers to be sent to him.  He had gained much wisdom in his old age, however, and the twenty five year old Andrew had the patience to attend to other tasks while the process ran.

Andrew flipped on the TV.  COPS was on again.  It was one of Andrew’s favorite shows – he was amazed at how dumb some of the criminals were.  Andrew finished his sandwich and watched the law enforcement personnel put an end to the chase by surrounding the vehicle.  The guy staggered out – clearly drunk or under the influence of drugs – and suddenly found a dozen guns pointed right at him.  Andrew chuckled.  What a moron.

When the show ended, Andrew channel surfed until he found a baseball game.  He didn’t particularly care about either team, but one of the pitchers had a no hitter through five innings, so Andrew left the TV on the game.  It was bad luck to switch channels when a no-no was in progress.  The pitcher carried the no hitter into the eighth inning.  It was broken up by a clean single to center field – amazingly, the runner was then thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a double.  Andrew chuckled again.  The morons were out in large numbers tonight.

Andrew deserted the game and went back to his computer.  He already had 5,617 numbers.  This was a good yield.  Base on the trending analysis for his previous projects, he estimated that he would gather about 65,000 numbers before authorities shut the site down.

Andrew sent a coded message to his client.  They quickly negotiated a fair price for the numbers.  Andrew and the client had a great working relationship.  Andrew’s data always contained a very high percentage of valid numbers (because his sites looked very authentic), and the client accepted the fact that a certain percentage of the data would  be bogus – people who figured out the scam and entered false data.  Some guys could be a real dick about the bad data, but his client knew that it was the nature of the beast.

Exhausted from the day’s activities, Andrew crawled into bed and fell asleep – dreaming of newer and bigger adventures.

In the United States, there are many endangered and threatened animals which the public knows much about. The Gray Wolf, Grizzly Bear, Black Footed Ferret, and so forth. All of these animals fall into the “charismatic megafauna” title: big, furry animals that look good on a postcard. Unfortunately, there are constant battles being fought for other lesser known and lesser loved species One of these animals is the American Crocodile. Yes, that is correct, there is a native Crocodile in the United States.

The American Crocodile ranges from the coastlines of the northern portion of South America, throughout Mexico and Central America and to the Caribbean islands. There is also a small remnant population struggling to survive in the Everglades of southern Florida. Since the appearance of Europeans in Florida, the crocodiles (and alligators) have been killed, and their habitats destroyed. It is estimated that at one time, the American Crocodile numbered in the tens of thousands, but today somewhere between 500 and 2,000 survive. These ferocious carnivores survive in the brackish, coastal waters along the southern third of the Florida coast, but their habitat is dwindling in both size and quality.

Crocodiles share geographic space with their relative, the Alligator. Over the course of crocodilian history, the Alligators became more adept at handling more habitats, and the Crocodiles were relegated to the coastlines where they found success in the mangrove swamps and brackish streams. American Crocodiles have nearly the identical diet to that of Alligators with the exception being that Crocodiles will make marine animals prey items. The physical differences between the two species are well notated and easily found with a simple web search. The main issue haunting the Crocodile is how its habitat, compared to that of the Alligator, is being protected.

Coastal, brackish areas in Florida are under constant assault not only from human intrusion, but from pollution. Many of the mangroves in Florida are dying because of increased pollution in the Gulf of Mexico. This directly affects the Crocodile as they use the cover of the mangroves to breed and build their nests. Agricultural runoff from the Mississippi River delta is wreaking havoc across the Gulf and water tests show that the pollution trail reaches as far as Puerto Rico. As people in and around the state continue to push Florida to its physical limits, the Crocodile will be one of the first large animals to feel it.

People ask questions like, “Why is the Crocodile even important? The Alligator is there.” These questions are simple to answer if a person is willing to accept a few notions: 1) The natural world is essential for our existence. 2) Humans live within the natural world, not above it. The Crocodile’s role in the ecological balance in Florida is well documented. They are the top predator in their habitat and provide the typical benefits any top predator does. Just like the wolves in Yellowstone actually increasing the health of the Elk populations, Crocodiles have much the same effect.

The bigger picture is that the United States has been blessed to be the home to 1000s of unique species, and the biodiversity in places like southern Florida is one of the nation’s greatest natural wonders. If our society continues on the current path, we may eventually lose jewels like the American Crocodile. The tragedy of this is best describe with the following analogy: How great would a zoo be if it had only 10 types of animals on display? And what if every zoo had the same 10? This is the drastic end of the direction society is going. With habitat destruction and degradation, species’ populations are being fragmented and destroyed. Soon, there may be nothing left but lands with few, if any, native animals.

The Crocodile is a poster child for these issues. While rarely seen in the wild, the Crocodile is there, surviving in the brackish waters of southern Florida. Hopefully, it will still be there for our children’s children. Take the time to do some simple research on our native habitats and species and what you can do to help them survive. Whether it be donating a small sum, making minute lifestyle changes, or imploring your congressman, being stewards of our national treasures is a responsibility we all share.

We are happy to announce the debut of a new feature, The Political Observers. Writers from each side of the political spectrum will share their views in the column, which will appear on Thursdays. Zarberg kicks it off today.

Health care seems to be the dominant story on the news these days, and for very good reason:  the changes being proposed will have some sort of impact on the vast majority of all American citizens.  Since I have spouse with a chronic disease, and I’m government employee for a state that now has the worst rated state health plan in the US, I’m paying pretty close attention to what’s going on. 

One thing in particular that caught my attention about my current health plan is a penalty that will go into effect in 2010 that says if you smoke or are obese you will get dropped from the 80/20 plan to the 70/30 plan.  This means that your health plan will pay 10% less of your claims if you smoke or are obese.  Since I don’t smoke and as an average height American male am only 165 lbs, I don’t fall into either category so my first thought was, “great, I won’t be penalized.”  Ever the optimist.  I didn’t think much of it after that until one of my co-workers pointed out that they’re applying the stick rather than offering the carrot.

The bleeding heart in me says rather than give them a punishment, offer them incentives they can’t refuse to lose weight.  The capitalist in me says hit ’em where it hurts if they’re costing the system, and hit ’em hard.  I’m still mulling over which part of myself I agree with more.  On the one hand, people who are already in shape will not have anything change, other than the standard increases in cost.  On the other hand, what if those obese state employees are genuinely trying to lose weight and simply don’t have the body type or biological makeup?  Interestingly enough, I have a co-worker who if this plan went into effect today, would be considered obese and not eligible for the lower cost plan.  He was vocally upset about it when first informed, but now has used this as an incentive to join a gym and work out 2 days a week.  He’s already lost 10 lbs, and is a shining example of exactly what the state health care plan wanted to achieve with this.

But what about those smokers?  I’ve never smoked more than a cigar on New Year’s with some friends, so I don’t know how addictive nicotine is but based on the large sums of money being made by stop smoking programs and patches and gum and so forth, I’m sure it’s pretty darn addictive.  Will 10% be enough to get them to kick the habit?  I’d rather see something where if they start a doctor-approved plan to stop smoking and it succeeds, the insurance company picks up the tab.  If they fail, the smoker pays. 

In the end, the part of me that is bitter about how broken the current system is will win out over the capitalist and bleeding heart parts of me.  I have a wife that continues to struggle with her health and we’re paying thousands a year above and beyond our health care plan while CEO of our not-for-profit health insurance company just gave himself a $3 million bonus.  We’ve been giving the health insurance companies the carrot for so long, they could stand to have a little stick applied to where it hurts them.

40 Tech, a site that claims to be “Tech for those over 40, but not yet over the hill.”  In actuality, though, it’s a good tech site, regardless of your age.]

What a game. What a series. Fans of the Philadelphia Phillies and Colorado Rockies have a concoction of NoDoz and Maalox coursing through their bloodstreams today, following the 2:15 a.m. finish on the East Coast for game three, and the tension of three of the four games of the series. Like two heavyweight prizefighters, the two teams traded near-knockout punches in the eighth and ninth inning of game four, with the Rockies climbing off the deck to take the lead in the 8th, before the Phillies rallied to take the lead for good with two outs in the ninth. In the process, the Phillies took the series, three games to one. So, what is the take on the series in Philadelphia?

Evenly Matched
It might seem odd to call two teams evenly matched when a series only goes four games, but the last three games of this series were close, tense, and exciting. You had the feeling that the results of each game would have been different if they played one more inning in each game. The talk in Philadelphia is that the experience the Phillies gained in last year’s World Series’ run made the difference, helping them to remain patient and never panic.

Carlos Gonzalez is a Stud
Manny Ramirez may have seemed unstoppable in the National League Championship series last year, but Gonzalez topped that. Phillies fans are glad they won’t see him again during this postseason. Baseball doesn’t hand out a Most Valuable Player award during the Division Series, but if it did, Gonzalez might be one of the rare players who wins a series MVP award while playing for the losing team.

This isn’t the Last We’ve Seen of the Rockies
The Rockies have a young core that any team would love to have. Troy Tulowitzki had some rough spots in clutch moments, but is one of the better shortstops in the game. Despite his implosions in games three and four, Huston Street was one of the premiere closers in the game this year. I also don’t think I’ve seen so many live arms in the bullpen as I saw in this series.

Most Clutch Philly Team Ever
This team is the most clutch team in Philadelphia sports history. You have to understand the pessimism of Philadelphia sports fans, beaten into us by years of our teams finding new ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. This Phillies team is an abberation, coming up big time and time again. From the record-breaking sprint to overtake the Mets for the Division Title in 2007, to the epic ninth inning last night, this team exhibits resilience not often seen in these parts.

The 9th Inning of Game 4 Will Go Down in Philadelphia Sports Lore
If the Phillies manage to repeat as World Series Champions this year, the ninth inning of Game 4 will go down in Philadelphia Sports lore, alongside Matt Stairs’ home run in the NLCS last year, the infamous “Black Friday” game I attended in the 1977 NLCS, and the legendary comeback against Nolan Ryan in the 1980 NLCS to cap off four straight extra inning games. I’m sure the 9th inning was just as frustrating to Rockies’ fans as the 8th was to Phillies’ fans. Regardless of where your allegiances rest, cherish this series. We were treated to three close, exciting games, capped off by a heart-stopping finish. Now bring on the Dodgers.

Former commissioner Bart Giamatti (yes, father of the actor Paul Giamatti) said it best in his essay The Green Fields of the Mind. Here is the short version of his masterpiece:

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. – A. Bartlett Giamatti

Tonight, on the 12th of October, just as the temperatures in Iowa have begun consistently flirting with the freezing mark, it would appear that baseball has once again deserted me.  After all, my Rockies have been eliminated from the playoffs.  After salvaging a split against the Phillies in the City of Brotherly Love, they returned to the Mile High City needing simply to defend their own turf and win their two home games to continue on in the playoffs.

Sunday night’s game was a wrenching defeat, made even more difficult by the phantom hit of Chase Utley.  After the game, the umpire admitted that he had the call wrong, and that the play should have been ruled a foul ball, forcing Utley back into the batter’s box, rather than allowing the result of the play to stand.

Monday night’s game, if possible, was even more heartbreaking.  At long last, it appeared that the Rockies were getting a few breaks.  In the seventh inning, trailing by a run, Seth Smith reached second when Raul Ibanez misplayed a ball in the outfield.  Unfortunately, Barmes and Spilly stranded Smith.

In the eighth inning, the luck finally turned the complete 180 I had been waiting for.  With one out in the inning and speedster Dexter Fowler on first base, Todd Helton hit a ball to Phillies second baseman Chase Utley that should have been an easy double play to end the inning.  Fowler – who was running behind Utley (because running in front of Utley would have screened Utley from the ball and would have been interference on Fowler) decided to leap over Utley.  In the midst of the chaotic play, shortstop Jimmy Rollins mishandled the toss from Utley – Fowler and Helton were both safe.

If Fowler was able to hurdle Utley without making contact, this would have been a legal play.  If he did make contact, I believe this could have been ruled interference, although I’m not 100% sure of this.  In any case, it seemed that the balance of “weird sh*t” plays had been restored, with the Fowler play compensating for the Utley play on Sunday.  It seems impossible that he could have jumped over Utley without touching him, right?  Then again, Fowler is a great athlete.

Sure enough, the hits kept coming.  Jason Giambi knocked home Fowler to tie the game and Yorvit Torrealba doubled to plate two more runs to push the Rockies out to a 4-2 lead.  After three Phillies had come to the plate in the 9th inning, there were two out and a runner on first base.  Victory was easily within grasp.

At which point the floodgates opened.  After Utley walked on a full count (meaning that the Rockies were just a strike away from victory) big bopper Ryan Howard tied the game with a double and Jason Werth put Philly ahead for good, plating Howard.  The Rockies put on two runners in the bottom of the ninth, but Troy Tulowitzki struck out the end the season.

So, then, where do we go from here?

Well, first of all, the playoffs are still ongoing, despite the absence of the Rockies.  Each series has a team that I hate (Dodgers and Yankees), making it easy to pull for the Phillies and Angels.  Certainly I will watch much more post-season baseball – and when I am unable to watch, I will be listening.

OK, but after the season actually ends.  Then what?

Well, free agency isn’t far away.  The one pending free agent who is near and dear to my heart, of course, is Matt Holliday.  Will Holliday sign with a team I like (Cardinals) or a team I hate (Yankees – ack)?  Certainly, I will engage people in banter about why the free agent compensation is horribly flawed and needs to be completely redone.

There is the Arizona Fall League and winter leagues in Latin America, of course.  I intend to follow them with much more passion this year.  I’ll even pick out a team at some point.

There are many baseball books in my personal library that I need to finish – everything from books of the physics of the sport to Tim Kurkjian’s feel good  book “Is This  A Great Game, of What?”

Then, of course, the new books will come out.  Ron Shandler’s Baseball Forecaster (The Bible of Fanalytics) is the one I eagerly anticipate each year, but surely another one or two books will catch my eye.  I’ll dust off my printed copy of the baseball collective bargaining agreement and read a few more sections.  While I can’t say for certain that I am more familiar with the CBA than the typical player, I wouldn’t be shocked if this were the case.

I’ll spend some time researching things on the web, of course.  Baseball Reference.com has wonderful tools, and I’ll have to make sure to use them all at some point.  John Sickels will certainly be at work during the winter, informing the world about minor league players on Minor League Ball.com.  And my peeps at Purple Row will be chattering about the Rockies all winter long.

Then, of course, there will be a short break for the winter Olympics, which features luge and a bunch of lesser sports.  By the time luge wrap up, spring training will be here, and the cycle will begin anew.

You see, there really is no offseason – simply a different phase of the year-long baseball season.

Three teams were quickly eliminated from the playoffs, with the Dodgers bouncing the Cardinals, the Yankees beating the Twins, and the Angels defeating the Red Sox. All three of those series went the minimum three games.

The most heartbreaking loss had to be the Cardinals loss in game two of their series. Holliday had hit a homer earlier in the game, and with two outs in the ninth inning, a ball was hit directly at him for a certain out. Unfortunately, Holliday lost track of the ball. It bounced off his, er, “cup” and the batter reached base. A rally ensued, and the Dodgers won the game. Holliday’s mis-play didn’t hand the game to the Dodgers – it merely gave them life. If the pitcher manages to strand that baserunner, we forget about the Holliday play. Unfortunately, the sequence of events that follow was walk, single (tying run scores), passed ball, walk (winning run scores).

Perhaps Holliday will want to avoid leaving St. Louis on a bad note and will sign with them as a free agent after the season. If Holliday doesn’t sign with the Rockies (unlikely) I’d love to see him with the Cardinals. The Cardinals fan I conversed with after the game don’t seem to be turning Holliday into a goat.

Alex Rodriguez appear to be making strides toward removing the label of post-season choke artist from his resume (an unfair label, in my opinion). In the three games against the Twins, A-Rod homered twice and drove in six runs. In game two, he accounted for all of the scoring in regulation with an RBI single in the sixth and a game-saving 2 run homer in the bottom of the ninth to send the game to extra innings, where the Yankees won on a Mark Teixeira homer. Give the game two game ball to A-Rod.

One series is still active – the NLDS series pitting the Phillies against my Rockies. In game one, Cliff Lee pitched a great game. Lee went the distance in the game and allowed just 1 run on 6 hits and walked none, while throwing 79 of his 113 pitches for strikes. I tip my hat to Lee.

In game two, Rockies pitcher Aaron Cook was sailing along through five innings, allowing just four hits and two walks. The Phillies got three hits to start the sixth inning (all three runs would score) and Cookie headed for the showers. The Rockies would hang on to win the game 5-4. The big hit in the game was a two run dinger by catcher Yorvit Torrealba off Phillies starter Cole Hamels. The following day, Hamels became a father for the first time. Congratulations, Cole.

The series was supposed to resume on Saturday. To my great disappointment, this did not happen. The game was snowed out, pushing game three of the series to Sunday and game four to Monday. An interesting side note is that that Pedro Martinez – noted for his dislike of cold weather – was the scheduled starter for Saturday. When the weather pushed the games back, Jay Happ was put into the starter’s role for game three (with Lee and Hamels the likely starters for games four and five.

Game three was a back and forth game early, with both starting pitchers gone by the end of the 4th inning. The Phillies pulled ahead on a 9th inning sacrifice fly RBI by Ryan Howard in the 9th inning and Brad Lidge stranded Carlos Gonzalez and Eric Young Jr to end the game and notch the save.

The runner who scored the winning run for the Phillies (Jimmy Rollins) moved to third base on an awkward dribbler of an infield hit by Chase Utley. It is unclear whether the ball hit Utley while he was in the batter box or not. If it DID hit Utley, it should have been ruled a foul ball, and the at bat would have resumed. However, the umpire apparently believed that it did not hit Utley, which is possible. Once of the announcers noted that a batter who is hit by a foul will often “freeze” in the batter’s box. For most batters, this is true – but Utley is a savvy player. If the ball did hit him (which, agin, I admit, it might not have) he may have realized that the smart move was for him to pretend that it hadn’t, and race toward first base and allow Rollins to move to third.

The Rockies and Phillies will face off again on Monday. Hopefully the Rockies can pick up a win against Cliff Lee and push the series back to Philadelphia. Unfortunately, the lefthanded starters for the Phillies are forcing some of our good bats to the bench because of matchup reasons.

The start times for this series have been awful. Two early afternoon starts in games 1 and 2 and a very late start time for Sunday’s game. The game started at 8 PM Denver time, which is 9 PM in the land of Kosmo and 10 PM in Philadelphia. The game was quite long, ending more than four hours later. 1:15 is kind of late for me to stay up … but luckily I don’t have to work in the morning!

(Yep – I finished writing this up after the game – it’s 1:25 local time right now!)

Last Week:
Straight Up – 11-9 ATS: 10-10

For the Year:
Straight Up – 62-30 ATS: 46-46

Meh…so so week for me….Some interesting games this week.

Thursday

Nebraska (-2.5) @ Missouri – Pelini has had this on the calendar since the embarrassment in Lincoln last year.  NE 27- Mizz – 10

Saturday

Boston College @ Virginia Tech (-13.5) – VA Tech is hot and cold.  I see the hokey pokey this week.  VA Tech 35- BC 17

Georgia @ Tennessee (-1.5) – Wow….Tennessee is bad in my opinion.  This should be dawgs!  GA- 28- Tenn – 10

Iowa State @ Kansas (-19.5) – Rack Chalk Jayhawk….this one will be ugly.  KU – 42- ISU 14

Alabama (-6.5) @ Ole Miss – Ole Miss still gets too much respect.  Bama is the quietist #3 ranked team ever.  Bama – 31- Ole Miss 21

Wisconsin @ THE Ohio State (-14.5) – Can Ohio State beat anyone by this much….Goodman says NO!.  OH State 22- Wisconsin 19

Oregon (-6.5) @ UCLA – Oregon is back on track!  ORE – 28- UCLA – 20

Baylor @ Oklahoma (-25.5) No Robert Griffith = No chance.  OU – 49- Baylor 20

Stanford (-2.5) @ Oregon State – Stanford is suddenly the emerald jewel of the Pac 10 conference..  Stanford – 21- Ore St 20

Texas Christian (-10.5) @ Air Force – Frogs Rule…I love the Frogs.  TCU – 31- Air Force 20

Florida (-8.5) @ Louisiana State – Wow that is a big number with no Tim Tebow.  LSU – 24- Florida 21

Michigan @ Iowa (-8.5) – I am not drinking the Tate Forcier water just yet but…..Iowa 24- Mich 20

NFL

Cincinatti @ Baltimore (-8.5) – Ravens look to rebound after tough loss last week.  Balt – 29- Cin 20

Washington @ Carolina (-4)  Team with no wins at home a favorite…Jeeesh.  Washington – 20- Carolina – 15

Pittsburgh (-12) @ Detroit – Maybe no Stafford..not like it will matter.  Pitt- 35- Detroit 10

Dallas (-9) @ Kansas City – Wow the Cowboys are not good.  Romo is not good.  Maybe T.O. got out while the gettin’ was good. KC- 21- Dallas 20

Minnesota (-11) @ St Louis.  How do you spell St Louis?  U-G-L-Y.  Minnesota – 35- ST Louis 17

New England (-3.5) @ Denver- Broncos used too much last week to narrowly beat Dallas.  NE is much better.  New England 24- Denver 14

Jacksonville (-4) @ Seattle – Still no Matt Hasselback?  Jacksonville is clicking on all cylinders.  Jax- 21- Seattle 14

New York Jets @ Miami (-1.5) – Is Braylon Edwards the answer for Mark Sanchez?  Are the Jets still stinging after last week.  Nope.  Jets – 24- Miami 20

Myron Buford climbed out his apartment window and sat down on the ledge outside.

This was nothing new for Myron. He would, on occasion, sit on the ledge and observe the frenzy occurring ten floors below – people racing to and from in the great rat race of life, as well and the infrequent appearance of the small animals who once had this territory all to themselves. Sitting on the ledge was very relaxing for Myron.

This time was different, however. Today, Myron would jump from the ledge, his body would collide violently with the concrete below, and he would die a quick death. Myron definitely hoped that his death would be quick.

Myron’s life had been in a downward spiral for months. His old boss had been replaced by a new manager. The new guy was a relentless task master, and Myron’s life had quickly become a living hell. All of the members of Myron’s team resented the new boss, and everyone had to work long hours of unpaid overtime to meet his demands. The boss had been particularly demanding of Myron, and Myron eventually got hopelessly behind. He tried to cover up his failures with a series of lies, and the boss had eventually uncovered the truth. Myron had been fired – kicked out onto the street after ten years with the company.

His girlfriend had been very supportive at first. Eventually, though, she simply couldn’t handle having a boyfriend who was unemployed. She went looking for greener pastures. To make the situation even worse, she was now dating the son of Myron’s former boss.

Just two days ago, Myron’s dog had died. Yesterday, he got a parking ticket while he was filling out paperwork at the unemployment office. He received a notice from the video store about a long overdue video – they wanted $88.42 in late charges! His favorite TV show had been cancelled by the heartless studio executives. And Myron thought that he just might be coming down with the flu. His life really wasn’t worth a plugged nickel.

Myron decided to take in the view of the street below one last time before he ended it all. He noticed that a light snow flurry had begun, making the people quicken their pace in an effort to stay dry. The snow reminded Myron of the upcoming Christmas season.

Christmas had always been Myron’s favorite time of the year. The presents were great, of course, but they were secondary to the holiday itself. Myron loved going to midnight mass to reflect on Christ’s birth in a manger so many years ago. He loved the Christmas dinner of beef roast and mashed potatoes that his mother prepared every year. The highlight for Myron, though, was spending time with his family. Christmas was one of the rare occasions on which he was able to spend time with his parents, siblings, and nieces and nephews.

As Myron got caught up in remembrances of Christmas past, he began counting his blessings. His dog may have died, but his pet goldfish was still swimming happily along. His favorite show may have been cancelled, but he did have all eleven seasons on DVD. He could watch reruns until he found a new show to watch. He had glowing recommendations from some former co-workers and would probably land a decent job before long. If his girlfriend wouldn’t stick with him through the hard times, it was probably better to find out now, rather than five years down the line. Heck, his favorite author had a new book coming out next week – he definitely needed to wait for that. Life was indeed worth living.

Myron was lost in happy thoughts as he moved back toward the window. He didn’t notice how slippery the ledge had become until he was sliding off. He managed to grab onto the ledge with one hand for a few seconds, but quickly lost his grip and fell to his death below.

This marks the 300th article in the history of The Soap Boxers!  We’re actually a bit above 300, as a small handful of articles were removed for  various (but very good) reasons.  By our formal counting, we’re at 300, though.

I was hoping that article #300 would be a splashy, fantastic article.  However, my productivity has really taken a hit over the course of the last week.  Some sinus issues have been causing some headaches and some other issues with my eyes.  Nothing serious, but enough to limit the amount of time I want to spend in front of a monitor and the headaches also make it a bit difficult to concentrate for a long period of time.  So I’ll just ramble for a bit today.  These issues are also hampering my work on the “long” story for this quarter, and that really sucks.  I’m on some steroid drops for my eyes, so if I start lashing out angrily at people, blame the ‘roids.  My left eyelid isn’t drooping involuntarily any more, which I see as a good thing.  Hopefully I’ll return to my usual verbose self quite soon.

Politics

Very soon, we will be adding a brand new feature to The Soap Boxers.  I have christened the feature The Political Observers.  Each week, a different political columnist will write an article on the topic of their choice.  The goal is to have two conservative writers and two liberal writers and alternate viewpoints.  I am still looking for an additional liberal writer.  We’ve had some delays getting this off the ground, but it WILL happen before long.  The columns will appear on Thursdays.

Although I strive to have balance within the political feature, I am not trying to pretend that the content of The Soap Boxers is neutral.  If you perceive a slant toward one particular direction, your perception is probably correct.  (If you’re not perceiving the slant, I won’t go out of my way to point it out).  For the rest of the articles on the site, I have made an effort to line up the best possible writers, with little regard to their political leanings.

The Lost Symbol

Yikes – I can’t believe that I don’t have this book done yet – but I simply haven’t had the time.  I’ve had a bit more time the last few days (due to being forced to limit computer time) and am creeping up on the halfway point in the book.  I really hope to finish the book up in the next week.  When I was younger, I could read a 500 page book in the course of a day … but I also had exponentially more spare time back then.

Apparently in prisoner exchange programs in the Middle East an Israeli life is worth more than an Arab life. While in theory some may agree with this since the Arabs vastly outnumber the Israelis and the extremists that Israel deals with really don’t hold much respect for the life of their enemies much less their own, the concept still seems odd to me.

One of the stories this week was that Israel has decided to release 20 Palestinian prisoners in a prisoner exchange. You are probably now thinking “Wow – so I guess the Israelis will receive 20 prisoners in exchange”. Not quite. Israel is releasing the 20 prisoners, all of who were convicted of crimes in a court of law, for just evidence that one IDF soldier, Schalit, who was kidnapped, is still alive. I am obviously biased toward Israel but doesn’t this exchange seem unfair to anyone? One side is handing over 20 convicted criminals and the other side is just providing evidence that a kidnapped soldier is still alive. From what I understand to actually get back the soldier the Arabs are requesting 1000 criminals. How did the Arab/Israeli prisoner exchange program become so lopsided? I will give my answer in a few but figured it would be informative to show some other examples of exchanges. I am thinking a fair number of unions wish they could negotiate with this kind of upper hand.

• 2003 – Israeli Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three IDF soldiers killed along the Lebanese border were returned in exchange for 435 prisoners. Israel also returned the remains of 59 Lebanese soldiers.
• 1996 – Hizballah released the remains of two Israeli soldiers in exchange for the remains of 123 Lebanese soldiers.
• 1998 – Hizballah returned the remains of Sergeant First Class Itamar Ilya in exchange for the remains of 40 Hizballah soldiers
• 1985 – In exchange for three Israeli soldiers held by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Israel released 1,150 Palestinian political prisoners.

The two things that are disturbing from just the examples in this blog are the inequality between what Israel has to give in order to receive an Israeli body (dead or alive) and that both sides appear to be holding the remains of each other’s soldiers. I am not sure how common this is but I would think that holding the remains of a soldier is a bit twisted and doesn’t really serve much purpose. Not sure why nobody has negotiated a policy in the Middle East of simply handing over all dead soldiers.

Anyway, enough rambling and back to my theory of why this type of negotiation takes place. The Muslim extremists normally holding Israeli lives have zero respect for life. This is consistently demonstrated by the way they treat their own people, the way they shoot rockets indiscriminately into cities, the way they use their own people as human shields and off course by promoting suicide bombings. What is most disturbing is the extremists do this in the name of Islam. Where are the people that practice Islam as it was meant to be practiced with not only respect for human life but respect for your enemy?

In closing, this type of behavior should be kept in the back of your mind as you read articles of Israel being inhumane or description of the extremists as “freedom fighters”. People are defined by their actions and not by how the media decides to paint them. I hope once again my article has shed some light on the realities of the conflict in the Middle East as the facts are very far from the fiction that you see on television.