Garfield Ridge

Nats Diary #13, 30 June 2005.

What is it with Washington's pitching?

Talk about schizophrenic-- Esteban "Steve" Loaiza pitches a 6-0 no-hitter into the 5th inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates, only to collapse faster than a cameraman following Kenny Rogers.

Then it was Hector Carrasco's turn to fumble on the mound. Then it was Luis "I Can't Believe Frank's Pitching Him Again" Ayala's turn to scare the home fans.

The oft-abused Ayala is on pace to make over *one hundred* appearances in relief this season. As my buddy Brian puts it, if we're lucky, we may get to go to the game where Ayala's arm flies off and sails across the plate while still clutching the ball. Of course, I'm calling it now, the ball will definitely be outside.

Seriously, Frank Robinson needs to find a way to give his pitchers a break, because right now he's treating his bullpen like Zed treats his gimps.



Frank, could you please stop going medieval on your pitchers?
Incredibly, the Nationals still defeated the Pirates by a score of 7-5, earning another sweep at home. Only this time, instead of dominant pitching the Nats needed the breathing room provided by a rare offensive explosion. Plenty of hits and runs, and not one but two (2!) home runs, one by Brian Schneider and another shot by Vinny Castilla, this one a boomer into the RFK Mezzanine.


A win is a win is a win, and I'll take it.

But wow, these guys really make their fans sweat.

---
RFK Notes: Wil "Wifebeater" Cordero played first base again for the injured Nick Johnson, and he even managed to hit a double today, doubling (!) his abysmal batting average. While that's certainly progress, I argued early with Brian that I still couldn't understand why Frank Robinson would bat the .031 hitter *sixth* in the order, above not only the pitcher but also the decent Brian Schneider and the awful-yet-better-than-Cordero Cristian Guzman. Brian defended the order, maintaining that the slumping Cordero represented more of a threat than even Schneider.

Next inning, Schneider hits his home run.

End of debate.

---
As thankful as I am to the Washington, D.C. government for delivering the Nationals here, they've dependably screwed up just about everything else in the process.

Today's example? The traffic into RFK was backed up all the way out onto I-295 today. While at 37,361 fans the game was well-attended, there was no obvious excuse for the backup. As we drove onto the RFK access road, we learned the reason for the delay: the city was taking the time, in the middle of the day, during a baseball game, to patch up potholes in the access road, reducing the road from its-already-too-narrow two lanes to a dreadfully-insufficient single lane.

Uh, guys? The Nats are going on a road trip tomorrow. If you insist on doing the work during the day, you could always wait for the stadium to be empty instead of a day where THIRTY-SEVEN THOUSAND PEOPLE are going to use the road..

Third. World. Country.

One Question For The Secretary.

I didn't get an opportunity to ask my question of Secretary Rumsfeld yesterday. I had two questions in mind-- the first was very much an "inside baseball" question pertaining to my specific work, the second about Iraq. I couldn't decide which question was best, but alas, I ended up not getting a chance to ask either of them.

Anyway, in hindsight, I'm really kicking myself for not getting the opportunity to ask my second question, which would have went something like this:

Mr Secretary, General Myers. . . Last night, the President again explained our strategic objective in the war in Iraq: a stable, democratic Iraq free of terrorist violence.

My question is, how can we best measure our progress towards our strategic objective at an operational level? In other words, how can the American people judge for themselves whether we are winning? Do we count the frequency of attacks, body counts, weapons counts, terrorists and insurgents killed or captured, or is there some other, more valuable objective metric that can be provided?

Judging progress toward victory in a counter-insurgency is an age-old problem. My worry is that, for all the worthiness of our strategic objective in Iraq, our leaders have no consistent idea of what constitutes victory at the operational level of this war. Without these metrics, we are unable to judge the long-term efficacy of our tactics, or whether we are any closer today to achieving our strategic objective in Iraq than we were two years ago.

That is what concerns me most, and if the Secretary and the Chairman have a sound answer for this question, I sure wish they'd share it with the American people.

Shelby Foote, R.I.P.

Historian and novelist Shelby Foote has passed.

I came late to my Civil War obsession, waiting until college to develop an enthusiasm. Although by that point I had already spent a number of years fascinated by military history, it wasn't until 1993 that two events shifted my focus to that most American of wars-- my reading of James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom, and the movie Gettysburg.

Suddenly, an era I had previously condemned as musty and irrelevant took on new life, and I was hooked. Becoming a Civil War buff while living in Virginia was as easy as getting out of bed in the morning. I became a voracious reader of Civil War history, and I took advantage of every opportunity to visit the many battlefields preserved here on the East Coast. Unlike anything else in American history, the Civil War was still tangible, could still be touched, as real as any German castle or Britannic henge.

Shelby Foote's three-volume history of the Civil War weren't the first books I read about the war, nor were they my favorite. Yet, like millions of Americans, Foote's narrative occupies a fond place in my memory. His eloquence and perspective was warmly welcomed onto my bookshelf.

There are many "essential" Civil War histories worthy of your time, and quite a few significantly more historically rigorous, but Foote's is by far the most poetic. Whether he captured all the facts of the Civil War remains in dispute, but he certainly captured the feel of that most terrible of wars.

He will be sadly missed.

Robert V. Foret - Resume

Hola! I'm one of the staff organizers of CabalArticles, a world-wide Internet article writing company. We all write content in Spanish and English for world-wide web audiences, and are on the market for articles and other content creation for your webpage. Down the page you can see my CV, and you should be able to read other staff organizers and team members' resumes on this web-site. At the bottom of my CV, you're going to see some instances of our publicized posts. For job enquiries, you should mail us with the form on this internet site and we'll react as soon as possible.


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Robert V. Foret
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New York, NY

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Graduated With Honors from Utah State University
10 years of composing experience (explicitly for Web audiences)
Superb fluency in English
Dedicated, staff-oriented staff member with a taste for specifics


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CabalArticles, New York City, NY
2001 - Present
Writing Team Manager
In charge of planning a international staff of authors to suit a challenging set of output goals.
- Set new records for output, increasing production by 20% worldwide
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No Terrorists Here, Move Along.

This here New York Times op-ed is garnering notice today for its insightful discussion and illuminating wisdom on the role of madrassas in Islamic terrorism. 

Oops, sorry, I got confused there for a moment-- this editorial is crap:

While madrassas may breed fundamentalists who have learned to recite the Koran in Arabic by rote, such schools do not teach the technical or linguistic skills necessary to be an effective terrorist. Indeed, there is little or no evidence that madrassas produce terrorists capable of attacking the West. And as a matter of national security, the United States doesn't need to worry about Muslim fundamentalists with whom we may disagree, but about terrorists who want to attack us. . . .

Like the view that poverty drives terrorism - a notion that countless studies have debunked - the idea that madrassas are incubating the next generation of terrorists offers the soothing illusion that desperate, ignorant automatons are attacking us rather than college graduates, as is often the case. In fact, two of the terrorists in our study had doctorates from Western universities, and two others were working toward their Ph.D.

Okay, let's take a step back for a moment.

Hmmm. . . because the 9/11 terrorists were somewhat educated, we shouldn't worry about any schools teaching stupid terrorists?

Anyone know how long madrassas have been in business? I've always understood them to be a relatively recent phenomenon (last 15-20 years), thus terrorists above a certain age by definition would never have been exposed to a madrassa education.

Even so, simply because the current generation of terrorist leaders never passed through a madrassa is meaningless to the *next* generation of terrorists that receive their years of education in hatred. Regardless of whether madrassa students go on to become a terrorist or a teamster, how can there be any good in rote learning that Jews are dogs, women are chattel, and Americans the great Satan?

Excuse me, but I'd rather have our enemy illiterate and friendly than angry with a 6th-grade education in evil.

But you see, the authors argue that madrassas don't teach skills directly applicable to skills like bombmaking and head-hacking. Gee, since you guys didn't learn how to build an IED in shop class, well then, you get a pass.

Of course, the madrassa's steady diet of hate merely motivates the students to later take Terrorism 201 at the Jihadi Technical Institute, where they can go on to earn their degree in Hawala accounting, gun repair, or scalp(ing) care. Or, even if the madrassa graduate never signs up for a terrorist cell, they're less likely to see any problems with the neighbors doing so. You're fashioning an enabling culture of hate.

Not all of our enemies in this war will be an educated mastermind like Mohammed Atta or Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. There are and will continue to be foot soldiers. And some of them-- perhaps many of them-- will receive their education and training in madrassas that teach hatred. Not necessarily how to fight, but they will definitely teach them why they fight.

Yet, the authors of this editorial would have us believe that we need only worry about the Hitlers and Himmlers, and that it is the height of folly to worry about the Hitler Youth. C'mon, all the real Nazis attended university during the Second Reich, or in the years of Weimar, so why worry about Nazi schools?

Inescapable logic, that.

[Cross posted over at Ace of Spades HQ]

Walter E. Terrell - Resume

Como Estas! I'm one of many staff managers of CabalArticles, a worldwide content writing group. We can write articles in Spanish and English for world-wide net readers, and are at hand for blog post development for your web page. Below you will read my CV, and you'll also be able to read other staff managers and writers' resumes on this website. At the bottom of my CV, you are going to see some samples of our written and published posts. For work inquiries, you should contact us with the form on this web site and we'll answer as soon as possible.


Resume
Walter E. Terrell
3959 Calvin Street
Baltimore, MD

 Summary
Graduated With Special Honors from Rivier College
10 years of creating experience (specially for Internet readers)
Exquisite competency in Spanish
Dedicated, group-oriented staff member with a aptitude for details


Job Expertise
CabalArticles, New York City, NY
2001 - Present
Team Leader
Responsible for organizing a global team of copy writers to fit a complex set of development goals and objectives.
- Set unprecedented records for output, boosting production by 20% around the world
- Correctly operated steady logs of work distribution
- Dealt with QA for worldwide creation over a substantial team of authors


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Competent in Spanish
Advanced skills using a extensive range of office software


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