Month: May 2002

Unreliable sources

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

In a fine story debunking some of the previously reported profits of porn companies, AlterNet’s Emanuelle Richard (link via InstaPundit) makes the mistake of relying on none other than Luke Ford as a supposedly reliable source. Richard concludes:

With the increased coverage, and the addition of porn beats at a handful of mainstream publications, the myths about the adult business are bound to give way to a more accurate picture. But, says Luke Ford, it might take a while.

“The media don’t catch the baloney, the lies, the true horror of this industry that you capture when you go on sets and you mix with the people, and you just see the cavalier way they deal with life,” Ford said. “Every one of these people lie. Everyone. They lie by habit. When their lips move, they’re saying lies — they can’t help it. … If the greatest reporter in the world decides to make porn his beat, it would still take him a year or two to get up to speed.”

Yeah, it’s a colorful quote, and I might have concluded my story the same way. But Luke Ford — who makes Matt Drudge look like Bob Woodward — is hardly the guy to talk about great reporting. Sure, he knows firsthand of the deviousness of many people in the porn industry, but he did his part to make reliable information about the porn industry hard to come by in reporting rumors, gossip and off-the-record conversations on his pseudo-news site.

He burned as many times as he was burned, and is not exactly the kind of disinterested observer you should turn to for a balanced view of what’s really going on in the industry. I guess Richard’s years of covering porn — on and off — did not teach her that much.

Unwitting victims of the war

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Today we remember the men and women who gave their lives in American wars. Though the men and women who were killed by terrorists on Sept. 11 never signed up to fight a war, they were the first victims in this new war nonetheless.

A stirring series of documents reported by the New York Times as “Fighting to live as the towers died” tells the stories of the almost 2,000 people trapped on the top 19 floors of the north tower and the top 33 of the south tower.

I’ve only read part of the story, but it is an amazing document of the many ways those poor souls dealt with their last moments on earth, as told through e-mails, telephone calls, etc.

Talk about gutsy wins

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

It seems as though everyone thought the Nets would not be able to bounce back from game three, but I couldn’t see that happenning. Jason Kidd was perfectly calm after the game and it was clear that he had the right attitude about how to go about winning the next game.

Also, the Nets really have outplayed the Celtics in this series, and they did it again today. Just as the Lakers were lucky to win game four against the Kings on Horry’s buzzer-beating shot, so the Celtics didn’t really deserve to win games three or four.

I think that, right now, you’d have to say the momentum is with the Kings and the Nets. Both have regained home-court advantage and have clearly outplayed their opponents. And I think the Kings will bounce back from game four just as the Nets bounced back from game three.

Whatever happens, it should be exciting. The Celtics need to play the kind of defense they played in the second half today for the entire 48 minutes on Wednesday night.

Six scoreless innings? You’re outta here!

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Don Baylor’s decision to remove Jason Bere from the game last night is a perfect example of his managerial idiocy. Bere, who has struggled all year, was finally pitching well: six innings, no runs, four hits, three strikeouts, three walks. That’s not the kind of performance you reward by removing the pitcher from the game — unless you’re Don Baylor, that is.

Fassero and Mahomes, no surprise, couldn’t get the job done. And, despite a great start this year, Borowski fell down on the job. But the point is that all of this wasn’t necessary. Bere may not have pitched a complete game shutout, but why not give him the chance? Why not give him a boost of confidence after a rough start by letting him go long when he’s pitching well?

That’s how you blow a five-run lead, a chance for a sweep against a division rival, and end a six-game win streak. Aargh.

Poor puppies

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

An amusing digression in the blogosphere on why more fathers don’t want their daughters to be lesbians. Eugene Volokh says that for many practical as well as irrational reasons, fathers should want their daughters dating women and not men.

Charles Oliver of Shoutin’ Across the Pacific opines that it’s nice in theory but in reality, “A man believes that if his daughter is going to hook up with some beefy person in Levis, a plaid shirt and a bad haircut, it might as well be a guy.”

Like Volokh and Oliver, I also do not have any children. Unless you count the beagle-dachsund mix Karen and I have — Sport, a boy. If we had a girl dog, I don’t think I’d mind her being a lesbian. But we’d probably do with her what we did with Sport, which solves all of these problems: get the dog neutered. An elegant solution, no?

Self-defense is not a privilege

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Over at Keep and Bear Arms, Barbara Renner writes movingly of the case of Ronyale White, and how too often the options touted as superior to armed self-defense fail:

Women are repeatedly advised to obtain court orders to protect them from potentially violent former partners and others who may do them harm. But protective orders do not stop bullets, or knives, or clubs, or any other implement that can inflict bodily harm. Protective orders do not barricade windows and doors, nor do they prevent violent individuals from entering a home. They don’t shield women (or men) from physical attack. They are what they are — pieces of paper.

Likewise, women are told to dial 9-1-1 when danger is lurking. They are led to believe that authorities will arrive, take charge and diffuse the situation before any substantial harm is inflicted. It is shameful propaganda that costs innocent lives. Waiting on a response to a call for help can literally take the rest of your life — as it did for Ronyale.

White was the mother of three.

I bet my governor loves taxes more than your governor

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

The Chicago Tribune’s Adam Kovac reports that Gov. George “Safe Highways” Ryan will ask for higher taxes on cigarettes and riverboat gambling on Monday.

I am shocked, shocked that the Gov wants to increase taxes. The GOP seems to think the stench from the governor’s licenses-for-bribes scandal will hurt Jim Ryan’s chances against Blagojevich. Let me tell you what. Raising taxes — actually seeking to raise taxes, will do much more harm.

The idea that Illinois Republicans actually oppose tax increases is a tragic joke. Most people don’t expect much from state government, and they certainly don’t expect that the budget will be so mismanaged shortly following a period of tremendous economic growth and skyrocketing revenues that a tax increase will be required.

Can moderate Democrat Rod Blagojevich capitalize on this budget mess?

For now

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

I guess Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s announcement that Iraq won’t be attacked anytime soon is the best that could be expected from the Bush administration. Here are some scary figures reported in the Tribune story:

Military analysts say an invasion of Iraq could take more than 200,000 troops, involve risks of high casualties from possible biological and chemical attacks, and require a lengthy buildup in the region.

Yikes. Now, I don’t doubt that regime change in Iraq could eventually be accomplished, but the first question is whether it is necessary and the second question is what other anti-terrorist efforts would be sacrificed or put on hold in order to do it. This seems to be the concern of some top people in the military as well.

After all of the chatter, the fact is that Iraq and Saddam Hussein are not much of a threat to anyone but their own people, and they’re certainly not a threat to the United States. There’s still no link between Hussein and Al Qaeda or other anti-American terrorist groups, and there’s no reason to think that the United States’ overwhelming nuclear power isn’t enough to deter any hypothetical Iraqi deployment of weapons of mass destruction.

But Dubya will plunge ahead, anyhow. Unfortunately, it’s a matter of when, not if. Though I think the current hoopla over who knew what when regarding Sept. 11 is overblown and won’t in the end really do much to improve American intelligence operations, perhaps it will hurt Dubya enough to put a hold on his foolish plan to attack Iraq.

Brian Carnell asks, “Why do I pay taxes again?” He makes some good points.

Greatest fourth-quarter comeback in NBA playoff history …

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

… and I was asleep. It would have been one thing if I had not watched the game at all, but I saw the miserable first three quarters. The Celtics played some of the worst basketball I’ve ever seen in the playoffs.

But just as the fourth quarter started, my lack of sleep the night before caught up with me. For whatever reason, I woke up at 5 a.m. Saturday morning. I hadn’t gone to sleep until about midnight and I certainly needed more sleep, but I just wasn’t tired. I went out to breakfast with the Stris, came home and did some chores, and it was only at about 6 p.m. that I decided I needed to take a nap.

So I did. I woke up at midnight and turned on SportsCenter to see how much the Celtics wound up losing by, only to discover that I missed Paul Pierce‘s 19 fourth-quarter points, New Jersey’s collapse, and the return of the leprechauns to the hallowed ground where the Boston Garden once stood.

And the Cubs won too! Kerry Wood, who is quickly making it clear he’s the ace of the staff this year, only pitched a complete-game four-hitter. Yeah, I’m glad I missed that too. The Astros have now lost six in a row to division rivals St. Louis and Chicago. Sorry, Karen.

Beyond parody

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

“Factual error found on the Internet,” The Onion reported this week. It’s funny, of course, because it’s obvious to anyone with a lick of common sense that there are many unreliable sources of information on the Internet.

But apparently Dr. Daniel Seidman of Tel-Aviv University didn’t understand the concept. He did a study examining the reliability of information on the Internet about the abortion pill RU-486 and found that “sites intentionally emphasizing extremely rare complications may lead women — especially young girls — to postpone their decision to seek medical care, thereby increasing the danger of medical complications known to be associated with delayed termination of pregnancy.”

Unreliable information about abortion on the Internet? Who’d of thunk it?! It’s a shame, of course, that anti-abortionists resort to disinformation campaigns, but the fact that a lot of sites favor their point of view over the facts is not exactly newsworthy. Indeed, this site is a prime example of it!

First time is the best time

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

I almost always prefer the first version I hear of a song to any later versions. Obviously, many covers of classic songs are pale imitations of the original greats, but this extends even to different versions of a song by the same artist. Once that first version clicks on my mind, I either get into its groove or I don’t. And any subsequent version will be judged on how I reacted to the original version.

The only exception to this is any Bob Dylan version of one of his own songs when compared to cover versions. I liked Sheryl Crow‘s take on “Mississippi,” for example, but it’s nothing compared to his own version on “Love and Theft,” which is absolutely sublime. Anyway, no one can sing Dylan like Dylan.

How far can he go?

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

While the Dodgers’ Shawn Green may have had one great day, but he’ll never have the kind of consistently great career Barry Bonds has had. Now that Bonds has passed Mark McGwire in the all-time home run
race, the question is who else he’ll pass before he retireds.

With 584 home runs, Bonds is 171 home runs short of Aaron’s record. Already 38, I think Bonds knows he won’t be productive enough for long enough to become the all-time champ. Ruth, of course, is in second place with 714 home runs and Willie Mays is in theird with 660 home runs. Bonds will pass Frank Robinson’s fourth-place 586 home runs within the week, probably.

Bonds is projected to hit 60 home runs this season, but let’s be conservative and say Bonds winds up with 50. That would give him 617. Then he would only need 44 home runs in 2003 to overtake his godfather Willie Mays for third place. At that point, Bonds would 39 — and all of this assumes of course he will stay healthy and productive.

But by 39 you’ve got to hink Bonds’ production will drop off, and he’d still be 53 home runs behind Ruth. I think that Bonds — aside from wanting to win a championship — must be realistically shooting for his godfather’s record. Third place all time for a few years? Not too shabby. Until Ken Griffey Jr. comes charging, of course.