Keith Burgess-Jackson

I leave you this fine evening with a column by Thomas Sowell.

Josh Hamilton of my adopted Texas Rangers has been named American League Player of the Month for the second consecutive month. He just hit his 16th home run of the season and drove in his 65th run. His closest competitor, Carlos Quentin of the Chicago White Sox, has 14 home runs and 48 runs batted in. Nothing Hamilton does surprises me anymore.

Here is an interesting op-ed column about propaganda. What would you rather be called, “lazy” or “laid back”?

Is there anything more honorable than a career in the military? See here for William Kristol’s op-ed column about Barack Obama’s recent commencement speech.

Here is a New York Times story about the new world-record holder in the 100-meter dash. The following paragraph from the story is so breathtakingly stupid that I don’t know what to say:

At the same time, a small but growing number of people have begun to suggest that performance-enhancing drugs should be legalized. After all, performance enhancement is allowed in the bedroom (Viagra) and in the concert hall (beta blockers); to some, going after athletes amounts to selective prosecution.

Since when is sex a competition?

Keith,

Don’t know if you are interested in this branch of philosophy (probably not), but I like this science blogger’s photo.

Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY)

If this isn’t the best album ever made, then life is not a journey.

Addendum: Here are two songs from the album.

Addendum 2: Three hours after I posted this item, I discovered that there’s a story about Journey in today’s New York Times. It’s synchronicity, I tell you.

The New York Yankees (28-28), who play the Minnesota Twins on ESPN in less than two hours, are 6½ games behind the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays (35-22). How many of you think the Yankees will win the East Division title? How many of you think the Yankees will make the playoffs? I think the Yankees will be lucky to finish third in the division. More likely, they’ll finish fourth, and it’s not out of the question that they’ll finish dead last. A-Rod should have stayed with the Texas Rangers.

Here.

To the Editor:

Re “The Rich Get Hungrier,” by Amartya Sen (Op-Ed, May 28):

When Mr. Sen notes with regard to food shortages caused by increasing demand that “happily, population growth is already slowing,” we should be anything but reassured.

United States population has tripled in the last 100 years and world population has quadrupled in that same time span, putting immense pressure on all our natural resources and acting as a fundamental driver of global warming.

To suggest that we shouldn’t be concerned because this rate of growth has started to decline is like saying we shouldn’t worry about racing toward a cliff at 80 miles an hour because we used to be going 90.

Craig Dunkerley
San Jose, Calif., May 28, 2008

Beneath all else, slumbering but soon to awaken, is the paradox—old as the seventeenth century—intensified by recent studies of animal behavior: certain beasts are “human” enough (similar to man) that experimentation on them seems justified (to man) by the possible benefit to man; yet these same beasts are “inhuman” enough (different from man) that experimentation on them (in ways that would not be allowed on man) is morally permissible. Jane Goodall lamely concludes that chimpanzees should be housed and fed better in the labs.

(John Rodman, “The Dolphin Papers,” The North American Review 259 [spring 1974]: 13-26, at 18)