Keith Burgess-Jackson

The Cleveland Indians eliminated the New York Yankees from postseason play by beating the Bronx Bombs in Yankee Stadium, 6-4. This is the third consecutive year—and the fourth time in the past six years—in which the Yankees lost in the first round of the playoffs. So much for trying to buy a World Series title. Alex Rodriguez will not play in a World Series this year. He has not played in a World Series during his 14-year career. This year, he went 4-15 (.267) with only one extra-base hit (a solo home run) in postseason play. He struck out six times and left six runners on base. He scored two runs and drove in one. During his four years with the Yankees, A-Rod is 23-94 (.244) in postseason play. I wish Yankee fans would admit that he is a postseason bust. As for the Yankees, this is their seventh year in a row without a World Series victory. (They last won in 2000.) During that time, George Steinbrenner has spent well over a billion dollars in player salaries. This is my final Yankee Watch of the year. I expect all the arrogant Yankee fans out there—Joe, Tom, John, Jerry, Hawk, et al.—humbly to congratulate the Indians on their magnificent victory. Don’t say I didn’t warn you about the Indians.

Consider the sense in which philosophy comes before science. Many of the concepts the scientist uses and many of his working assumptions he prefers to take for granted. He can examine them if he wishes, and some scientists do. Most do not, because if they waited till they were clear on these difficult basic ideas, they might never get to what most interests them at all. But it would be absurd to leave these basic ideas unexamined altogether. This somewhat thankless preliminary work is the task of the philosopher.

(Brand Blanshard, “The Philosophic Enterprise,” chap. 10 in The Owl of Minerva: Philosophers on Philosophy, ed. Charles J. Bontempo and S. Jack Odell [New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1975], 163-77, at 171)

It’s still hot in North Texas. Today, while running in 84º heat (and excessive humidity), I noticed a dog lying on a slab of concrete in someone’s back yard. It looked as though the dog was lying in the shadow of a basketball backboard. When I got done with my 3.1-mile run, I was drenched in sweat. I walked a quarter of a mile to the house to inspect. Sure enough, there was a black dog (a pit bull) lying in the three-by-three-foot shadow cast by a backboard on the concrete. The dog was tied to something and had only the small shadow to stay out of the blistering sun. The dog’s black hair was soaking up the sun’s rays. When I approached the fence, I noticed two things: (1) the dog was panting profusely; and (2) there was no water bowl.

I knocked on the door. Realizing that I was poking my nose into a stranger’s affairs, I apologized to the man who answered the door. “Please don’t get mad at me,” I said; “I wanted to see whether anyone was home.” I pointed out that the dog was trying to avoid the sun’s heat by following the shadow across the concrete. The man said, “My dogs is [sic] fine.” I asked whether the dog had water. “My dogs is fine,” he repeated. By this time he was walking with me around the house, to where the dog was. A second dog came running up to the fence. That one was untied. The black dog got up and approached. I pointed to the small shadow on the concrete and explained that the dog would begin to have convulsions if he or she got overheated. The man said, “My dogs is fine.” He insisted that the dog had water, but I didn’t see a bowl. I figured I had done enough and walked home.

The man was clearly upset with me. I knew this was going to happen, but I decided to risk injury to myself for the sake of the dog. Had I done nothing, I would have felt guilty. Now, because of the man’s anger at my officiousness, I’m afraid. It was a no-win situation. What would you have done? Perhaps I should have gotten the house number and called the Humane Society or Fort Worth Animal Control. I considered this, but decided that nothing would be done. It was either go to the house personally, risking the owner’s wrath, or do nothing. Can you believe that people are so cruel to their dogs? I only hope that I gave the man something to think about.

Will Nehs sent a link to this news story, in which Hillary Clinton is described as “snippy.” Will is worried that he will feel like Randle McMurphy if Hillary is elected president. Is anyone else worried about this? Maybe what really worries Will is that he will feel like Peter Abelard. Here is Abelard’s account of his castration:

When her uncle and his kinsmen heard of this, they were convinced that now I had completely played them false and had rid myself forever of Heloise by forcing her to become a nun. Violently incensed, they laid a plot against me, and one night while I all unsuspecting was asleep in a secret room in my lodgings, they broke in with the help of one of my servants whom they had bribed. There they had vengeance on me with a most cruel and most shameful punishment, such as astounded the whole world; for they cut off those parts of my body with which I had done that which was the cause of their sorrow. This done, straightway they fled, but two of them were captured and suffered the loss of their eyes and their genital organs. One of these two was the aforesaid servant, who even while he was still in my service, had been led by his avarice to betray me.

Ouch.

Ron Paul is the least favorite person on the right. See here. What I don’t understand is why he is considered to be on the right. Libertarians are progressives, not conservatives. By the way, John Hawkins should rename this feature “Right-of-Center Bloggers Select Their Most Disfavored People on the Right.”

Here.

To the Editor:

Who cares what modern health care-delivery methods are called? The elemental problem is that more and more people feel entitled to vast quantities of high-quality health care paid for by someone else.

And politicians, ever lusting for office, are only too happy to conjure the ridiculous illusion that A will get top-flight service from B when C is forced by G to pay the bills.

Donald J. Boudreaux
Fairfax, Va., Sept. 28, 2007
The writer is chairman of the economics department, George Mason University.

Note from KBJ: Try to find common sense like that in a law school or philosophy department.

Here.

Today is Columbus Day. My newspaper, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, made no mention of it, even by listing closures. Did yours?