Cozy Corner

The NFL Draft has begun, and Day One is over. I'm so far very, very pleased with Belichick and Pioli; their strategy this year should make the Patriots a viable contender. Belichick's money quote:

It seems like we're at it a little bit earlier than we usually are on draft day.

Round One picks up Laurence Maroney, the running back out of Minnesota. Sure, he's not Reggie Bush, but Bush was the second pick, while the pats were at 21. While everyone always talks about the Pats' defensive weaknesses - and 2005 was indeed painful, watching defenders drop like flies - their offense has been lacking. Which isn't to say Tom Brady isn't amazing, or that his offensive line doesn't give him great protection. But with Dillon injured or tiring, and a succession of second-string runners trying to fill in, everyone else's defenses did not have to respect the run this year. I think that will change.

Round Two is equally interesting. The Pats traded up from twentieth to fourth with Green Bay, tossing in one of their two third round picks (the one they'd picked up from Baltimore in earlier trading). According to the NFL draft value chart, this is a slight loser (595 points for 540), but it is consolidating into one pick, Chad Jackson, a wide receiver out of Florida. He's a smart guy - apparently, when the Pats came to work with him, they ran him through some offensive scenarios; when he came up to work out, they had him break down what he'd learned in the first workout. That they picked him means he's going to fit into the offense nicely.

In Round Three, the beefing up of the offense continues, with the acquisition of tight end Dave Thomas of Texas, who ended a great season with 10 catches in the Rose Bowl. He's a nice third round acquisition, especially to back up Ben Watson and Daniel Graham. The trading does the right thing for the Pats - they needed the stronger receiver to work with Deion Branch, Reche Caldwell, Bethel Johnson, and Troy Brown far more than a high end tight end to work into the Watson/Graham mix. And Green Bay used the pick to pull a center off the draft, and the offensive line is probably the last place the Pats need help.

Today, I'd expect to see some focus on the defense, given the Patriots' tendency to chew up and spit out the linebackers and defensive ends, and maybe a kicker to work out against Grammatica. But I wouldn't be surprised to see another offensive weapon turn up.

And on an even brighter note, it doesn't look like the Jets are doing as well at their picks, at least according to some of their fan base.

Posted by Andy at 09:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For the anti-Bush crowd, Pink has a performance of "Dear Mr. President" online. If you'd like to read the lyrics, check them out.

It's very well done song - and eminently listenable.

Sadly, little of her criticism is directed at the President's real failings (not providing leadership, either to his party or the country; the disaster that is our southern border and immigration policy related thereto; his failure to lead a meaningful debate on social security). Instead, she pulls on some heartstrings:

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?
Unfortunately, homelessness is difficult to measure, and when I look through the various advocacy groups' websites, they've become cagey. The figure for homelessness used to be the estimate of the number of people in a shelter or on the street on a given night, but fortunately, most homeless are transitory, getting back on their feet quickly, or stay with family or friends (this is a good thing, I think). So now we've shifted to "number of people in a given year who experience homelessness", and includes some estimates. So I can't tell if the problem is getting better or worse, and would appreciate some statistics to inform.

how do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
Hmmm. Like none of the mothers of people killed on the U.S.S. Cole, the barracks in Beirut, the Twin Towers, falafel stands in Tel Aviv, or victims in Darfur got to say goodbye? Presumably, she's referring to deaths of U.S. soldiers, who volunteer for their country, reenlist at ever increasing rates (and hey, are even being recruited at ever increasing rates). Sadly, this is the lot of wives and mothers - and often requires greater courage than that of their sons and husbands - I recommend reading Gates of Fire. (And yes, I know that women serve, honorably, in combat zones, and are raped and killed by our enemies there, and I am not trying to denigrate their contribution in any way, shape, or form by using gendered terms).

How can you say No child is left behind
We're not dumb and we're not blind They're all sitting in your cells

Hmmm. Talk about conflation. I can only assume that "your cells" refers to enemy combatants held by the U.S. (although an argument could be made for how many of our inner city youth end up passing through - and landing in - our penal system, I haven't seen that one come up a bit in the anti-Bush crowd).
NCLB is knife wound into the gut of this country. Unfortunately, our public education system is a cancerous rot that needs to be dealt with, and NCLB is the first step in that surgery. Problems? Absolutely. Worse than before? I don't think so.
As for the process of dealing with terrorists or partisans who assault our troops, and their explicit lack of international legal standing, or the fact that Gitmo is an embarrassment to the world - mostly, because the facility is more humane than most prisons in the world - well, I think we'll just disagree on that one.

what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine
Wow. From objecting to hatepolitics to expressing hatepolitics, all in one stanza. How amazing.

Let me tell you bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
I'll agree with her. Having lived at minimum wage, and having a baby, I can't imagine doing them at the same time (and one of the reasons I am quite thankful for the foresight to not enter one condition while in the other). But the hard work of some does not denigrate the hard work of others.

Let me tell you bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
This one, I've got to admit, has me stumped. Has the President not, in the last four and a half years, vigorously prosecuted a war on Islamic terrorists, enlisting allies to do so, some might even say overzealously in his choice of targets, for the express purpose of not having more bombs depriving American civilians of life and property? Have I missed a terrorist attack on our soil since 9/11?
Since I don't think I have, I can only assume that Pink is now arguing against any collateral damage incurred as a result of our prosecution of the war on terror. Conveniently ignoring that much of the collateral damage is caused by our enemies. That there is less killing now than there was prior to our intervention.
Hey, I bet Pink would be opposed to an intercession in Darfur, because we might accidentally kill someone who isn't obviously affiliated with the Janjaweed. And that death, while potentially tragic, is more important than the hundreds of thousands civilians raped and murdered in a system slaughter of a people at the hands of their government.

Posted by Andy at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Meryl Yourish has written a graphic, and traumatizing description of suicide weaponry:

The bombs that terrorists use are among the most evil weapons ever invented. The explosives are bad enough, but palestinians have chosen to add metal pieces to the bombs to increase their deadliness, and to deliberately wound as many Israelis as possible. These extras are manufactured in not a tactical poison, so wouldn't necessarily be effective. As Meryl notes, focusing in on a small piece of the argument lets folks ignore that these weapons are among the most barbaric in use on the planet today.

But I decided to do 30 seconds of research into the rat poison "myth".

JWR, 2002:

Doctors in Israeli hospitals had been noticing that when they operated on people wounded in homicide bombing attacks, patients often continued to bleed even after being sutured. Eventually, a young medical resident figured out why: The terrorists filled their bombs with as many nails, screws, glass shards and pieces of shrapnel as they could, and these were first dipped in rat poison. The rat poison worked as an anti-coagulant.

Now Israeli emergency room doctors can treat bombing victims with Vitamin K to control the bleeding, but as the Rocky Mountain News reported, stronger drugs can cost up to $10,000 per vial.

WorldNetDaily, 2002:

X-rays taken from victims of suicide bombings reveal pieces of metallic fragments embedded in their skin, muscles, organs and bones, says Dr. Michael Messing, who visited the victims of suicide bombings while at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Suicide bombers pack their bombs with nails and other objects so even survivors of suicide bombings will suffer from the bomb's effects.

"They're trying to maximize the number of people they kill and injure," said Messing of the terrorists.

These bombs, which Messing says are sometimes funded by Palestinian authorities including Yasser Arafat, are packed with spikes, nails, screws, nuts, bullets, mortar, ball bearings and even rat poison.

Physicians for Human Rights, 2002:

Metal nuts removed from a patient after a homicide bombing by doctors at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. The hospital now has a collection of items such as screws, nails and rat poison residue, all added to the explosives presumably to increase the destructive power of the bombs. A PHR physician was present after the March 21st Jerusalem cafe bombing, and witnessed nickel-sized ball-bearings being removed from one injured man's back by medical center staff.

That last one, from a fairly reputable group, sounds a lot like firsthand knowledge.

Posted by Andy at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

DJ over at Polipundit has a good commentary on assumptions. I'd hate to try to extract anything from it, as it is a good, coherent read from start to finish, but here's a few:

Nobody but madmen wants a long bloody war. But itwe have to see how our occupation turns out. In the meantime, it my fervent desire that we will exhibit the national will to go win in Sudan and Iran.

Posted by Andy at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)