What do you think about laws banning small-scale scalping or price-gouging laws?

I am against them in most cases. I think scalping laws, in their current state, are unbalanced, uneven, and punish only small-scale scalpers. They don't punish corporations like TicketMaster, where they turn a $33 dollar concert ticket into a $53 ticket with extra "handling fees" added to it.

A few years ago, I wanted to see a band coming to my city but it was after a hurricane so I was kind of tight on money. I could do $33 or whatever the original price of the ticket was, but when I saw that I'd have to pay $53 or some amount like that, I started feeling guilty and thought that I shouldn't. That $20 extra was all "handling fees' and "ticket fees". Its ridiculous how many fees a big corporation like TicketMaster can add to a ticket and its legal and done under the guise of "handling fees", but if someone like you or me try to sell a ticket more than one dollar above face value, we could potentially get arrested for scalping. How are these scalping laws, in their current state, fair? They only punish small-scale scalping, not large-scale scalping.

I think some sports teams and athletes have taken steps to stop scalping of their own tickets and I applaud them for it. I liked it back in the 1990's when Pearl Jam did everything they could do to avoid using Ticket Master because of the way they overprice the tickets. THat's one of the few political issues I can agree with Eddie Vedder on. I think I heard that Hootie and the Blowfish took steps to insure that their tickets werne't getting scalped. Some baseball teams have banned selling tickets on their stadium grounds. I don't like that because it hurts spontaneous people like me, whom at the spur of the moment want to go to a game and buy tickets. I paid about $26 tonight to go to a Brewers game. That's the same amount I paid to go to a Red Sox game in historic Fenway. As I was buying my ticket someone was trying to discreetly walk around saying in a kind of quiet voice, "anyone need tickets?" I have a feeling, that I would have gotten a better price with the scalper since it seemed like he just wanted to get rid of his ticket. I was already in the middle of talking to the lady at the ticket office, so I didn't want to suddenly leave, bring attention to him, and get him and possibly me in trouble. I've gotten some pretty good prices from "scalpers" for tickets on my trip. I got tickets to Cleveland, Colorado, and I think Seattle for about $10. Of course, who would want to really watch those teams this year? I really liked the system that the Boston Red Sox have in place to address scalping at Fenway. They allow people to sell their tickets at face value. It is all regulated and there is a stadium official watching the whole thing. This helps the ticket holder legally sell their ticket and it helps someone like me buy a ticket who wants to buy it. If I bought a ticket from the box office at Fenway, I would have had to pay $125 because those were the only tickets they had left. I saved $99 buying it from a "scalper" because Fenway had a system in place to address the issue that works in everyone's favor.

Price gouging. In most cases, especially in small-scale cases, I am against price gouging laws, especially if the price is within reason. How do you define what "price gouging" is, especially after an event like a hurricane. After a hurricane things like bottled waters, batteries, and flashlights become as valuable as gold. A lot of people are stupid and unprepared and don't buy those things ahead of time even though they know they're living in a hurricane zone. Then, someone figures that they have extra batteries, flashlights, bottled waters, etc and figure that they want to sell them. in a way, they are doing a service by selling them, as long as their price is within reason, because many times stores aren't open because they don't have power. If someone complains that you are "price gouging" them, you could get arrested.

But, what exactly is the definition of "price gouging"? Isn't something worth what the market says that it is worth? If someone is willing to pay $10 for a flashlight, then isn't is worth $10? If someone is willing to pay $3 for a bottled water, then isn't it worth $3? Where do we draw a line between what is a reasonable price and what an excessive price is? How much of a markup do we need for something to be considered "price gouging"? If its 50% more than the original price, is it gouging? If its 100% more than the original price, is it price-gouging? Where do we draw a line? And if we are going to stop small-scale price gougers, then why not large-scale price gougers? If you go to an event like a baseball game, you may end up paying $3.00 for a bottled water. That's probably double or triple the price of what you would pay for it anywhere else. Now, why is that legal? Does that make any sense? If anything, instead of imprisoning small-scale scalpers and price-gougers, why not go after the large scale price gougers? We're being charged about $4/gallon for gas right now. Why not examing their practices a little more and make sure everything they're doing is clean. Of course, I say with the same breath that we should drill for more oil so we have more supply, while at the same time, looking for new potential sources of energy. Or what about some of the medication prices out there. We, as Americans, pay much more for prescription drugs than a lot of other countries. There are some Americans who can't take prescription drugs as often as they need to because they cost too much. Are we being charged a fiar price for some of these medications? Why are we arresting people for selling tickets to baseball gmaes or concerts for a higher price or over-pricing bottled water and batteries after a hurricane, while big corporations like TicketMaster, the oil companies, or pharmaceutical companies can do it under the guise of "business"? Either everyone who price gouges anything should be arrested or no one who price gouges anything should be arrested. Enforcement of the law should be equal. We also need a better definition of what "price gouging" is. How much can you mark something up before it is considered "price gouging". I looked up the myflorida webpage and there isn't a clear definition of what price gouging is. The only thing is says is if it goes above what was charged in the previous 30 day time period. If the state allowed some price gouging or it had a clear definition in the law, maybe it would stop excessive price gouging. Maybe if they said, that you could sell something for 50% above its normal price or some arbitrary number like that, it would keep price gouging within reason while making it worth someone's while to sell something they have excess of. SO then instead of charging $10 for a $2 flashlight, they would charge $3 and make a little profit but not be selling it for an excessive price.

I know that most libertarians are against price gouging laws and I think most of their arguments are good.

What do you think about them? Do you think that the government should force people, by law, to wear their seat belts?

I read statistics a while back saying that roughly 70% of the population wears their seatbelts. I don't know how much of that is because those people enjoy living and don't enjoy being ejected from their cars, and how much of that is because the laws are in place.

I, personally, always wear my seat belt. Since I was a kid, my mother was always big on wearing seat belts and my sister and I listened to her. My father did not wear his seat belt back when we were kids and I don't know if he still has that bad habit. If he does, he should be well aware of the consequences of not wearing a seat belt. My sister and I would always be telling him that he should be wearing it, but he never listens to us anyway.

Despite all of this and all the statistics, I don't know if government should really force people to wear seat belts. I, personally do it, but what if someone is stupid or they don't like living, and they don't want to wear their seat belt? Should they be protected from their own stupidity? Is it government's role to protect people from their own stupidity? WHen it comes to kids, its trickier. You don't want kids to be punished for the stupidity of their parents. Of course, if anyone ever ran for public office with the intention of getting rid of seat belt laws, they would probably lose. Its one of those laws, that even though, it kind of infringes on peoples' rights of what they can do in their own car, when it effects no one else, its a popular law, or so I would presume.

The good thing about seat belt laws is that it probably helps local governments bring in revenue at the expense of stupid people. Everyone should know about the statistics that seat belts save lives and if they value their own life, they should wear a seat belt without a law being in place.

I went to the Brewers game tonight and C.C. Sabathia was pitching. He pitched a complete game for the 8th time this season, and the 5th time since he was traded to the Brewers. Does anyone else think that its a bad idea to have one pitcher pitching all these complete games in a season, especially when the playoffs are likely for the Brewers?

One year, the Marlins had A.J. Burnett pitch, I think 7 or 8 complete games and the next season he needed Tommy John's surgery. He was out for about 1_1/2 seasons. I know that back in the old days that pitchers used to throw complete games much more regularly but in these days with big contracts, and five-man rotations, is it a good idea to work someone that much?

Chad JOhnson wants to wear "Ocho Cinco" on the back of his jersey. THe only way for him to do it without getting fined every week by the NFL is to legally change his name to "Ocho Cinco". He is working on that in Florida.

I wonder what Chad Johnson will ever do if he is on a team where 85 is already taken and he has to pick another number. That would suck for him.

Wide Receivers are probably the biggest showoffs in all of sports, but its fun to watch them do their dances in the end zone or whatever. I remember last year, when T.O. was doing his weekly segment for Dan LeBatard, someone told him that he should pretend to be filming something for his touchdown celebration to make fun of the Patriots. T.O. scored one or two touchdowns against the DOlphins that week and he did that celebration as everyone can remember. I used to have a low opinion of T.O. but it has improved since it seems like he has matured and become more of a team player. I hope it continues.

His supporters will be the first ones to know who his Vice Presidential pick will be. He will send his supporters a text message the second he picks his VP. I wonder what you have to do or if ytou have to donate a certain amount to the campaign to know. I'm sure 90% of the media will know about it right away since most of them are in his camp. If all I have to do is sign up for Obama's emailing list, I may do it just for that. If all I have to do is donate $10 to his campaign, maybe I'll do it, then donate $20 to McCain. I hope it would be Joe Biden because of his foreign policy knowledge and experience, I think it could be Sen. Bayh from Indiana. I hope it isn't that Gov. from Virginia but it could be. And I seriously doubt it will be former Co-President and current NY Senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and I know without a doubt that it won't be John Edwards. Supposedly, Obama is going to pick his VP soon. I think and hope that McCain waits until Obama makes his pick to counter his pick. I think chances are McCain will either go with Romney, to balance the ticket when it comes to economic expertise, and to satisfy the conservatives in the party, or he will go with someone whom no one is even thinking of right now. I think picking Romney could be a little bit of a risk because you know that the media will probably try to use religious bigotry against Romney to hurt the McCain ticket. I don't have a problem with Romney as VP, because of his economic expertise, but I think that is something that could hurt his candidacy.

People associated with the Obama campaign and the Democrat Party are worried that he hasn't taken a bigger lead in the polls and that in some of them, McCain has caught up. Hillary Clinton has been expressing doubts about Obama's chances of winning for a while. They seem to mostly think it is because of his race and because of his lack of experience compared to McCain. They also think that the fact that he isn't a Southern Democrat hurts him because our last three Democrat Presidents have come from the South. They also think that since everyone thinks that the Democrats are going to have larger majorities in the House and Senate, that people will vote for McCain because they want divided government. If Obama wins the election, 2010 may be another 1994.

When you get sprial notebooks, do you start from the front of the book like everyone else does or do you start from the back of the notebook so you don't have the spirals messing with your handwriting? Back when I was in high school, there was someone else in some of my classes who was also left-handed and he would start writing from the back of spiral notebooks and worked his way to the front. I think it annoyed teachers but they got used to it. I always started from the front, but on the road trip, I had to jot something down right away and I just opened up a notebook and started writing from the back of it without realizing it and thinking, "this is more comfortable".

I have read that most of the Renaissance artists were left-handed. I know that Leonardo DaVinci was left-handed and he may be my favorite of them, not necessarily for his art, but because from reading his biography, I think I can relate to him. He was kinda A.D.D. and he liked to venture into different things and projects. He didn't want to just stay to one thing. He was left-handed but I read somewhere that it may have been because of a disability, but he was left-handed nonetheless.

Was it Leonardo DaVinci or Nostradamus that would write "backwards" from right-to-left instead of from left-to-right? I can't remember and I don't know right off if Nostradamus was left-handed too, but it wouldn't surprise me if he was.

One interesting thing is that Hebrew is written from right-to-left, as opposed to the normal, left-to-right, and it seems like a disproportionate number of Jewish people are left-handed compared to the rest of the population.

It would be pretty neat to just start writing right-to-left. If anyone could pull it off, it would be me. I can already write letters upside down pretty well but I confuse my "b's" and "d's".

?hE ?taeN .tfel-ot-thgir morf gnitirw ecnetnes a si ereH

The next President is definitely going to be left-handed since both John McCain and Barack Obama are left-handed. So 4 of the last 6 Presidents will be left-handed(Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and either McCain or Obama). Some people say Ronald Reagan was born left-handed but was forced to switch to being right-handed.

He insulted Hillary Clinton, Jesse Jackson, and John McCain. He called Hillary a bitch and said that McCain should be in a wheel chair. I guess Obama has this wonderful rapper and his misogynistic music on his ipod too. I wonder why the feminists that are probably supporting him, don't complain about this. They claim they want women's rights and women to be respected, but they don't have an issue with a Presdiential candidate who listens to rappers that calls women bitches and hos. I'm sure that will sell in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan. Its something how, in one year, Bill Clinton has gone from being the "first Black President" to being called a 'racist".

Obama is Here

I'm back on it like I just signed my record deal
Yeah the best is here, the Bentley Coup paint is dripping wet, it got sex appeal
Never should have hated
You never should've doubted him
With a slot in the president's iPod Obama shattered 'em

Said I handled his biz and I'm one of his favorite rappers
Well give Luda a special pardon if I'm ever in the slammer
Better yet put him in office, make me your vice president
Hillary hated on you, so that bitch is irrelevant

Jesse talking slick and apologizing for what?
If you said it then you meant it how you want it have a gut!
And all you other politicians trying to hate on my man,
watch us win a majority vote in every state on my man

You can't stop what's bout to happen, we bout to make history
The first black president is destined and it's meant to be
The threats ain't fazing us, the nooses or the jokes
So get off your ass, black people, it's time to get out and vote!

Paint the White House black and I'm sure that's got 'em terrified
McCain don't belong in any chair unless he's paralyzed
Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped
Ball up all of his speeches and I throw 'em like candy wrap
'cause what you talking I hear nothing even relevant
and you the worst of all 43 presidents

Get out and vote or the end will be near
The world is ready for change because Obama is here!
'cause Obama is here
The world is ready for change because Obama is here!

This might be a little too optimistic for me but here it is anyway.

Red States are Republican States and BLue States are Democrat states. Dark Red or Blue means "Safe Republican or Safe Democrat. Regular Red or Blue means "Likely Republican or Democrat". Pink means Swing State Leaning Republican and Powder Blue means "Swing State Leaning Democrat"



This map has McCain ultimately winning 291 electoral votes and Obama winning 247 electoral votes. Its way too early and I'm assuming a lot of things are going to happen and that states are going to continue their normal voting patterns, for the most part.

You would think in a normal election, in recent times, that Georgia, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Montana would be dark red and "Safe McCain States" but some polls have shown it closer than it should be for McCain, so I have made them regular red instead of dark red. Indiana, is usually a safe Republican state, but for some reason, a lot of the polls show Indiana really close, so I have it pink for leaning McCain.

From 2004, I have Iowa and COlorado switching from red states to blue states and I have New Hampshire and Michigan switching from blue states to red states. I have McCain barely winning New Hampshire because even though it is really trending Democrat lately, it is McCain's kind of state and a state that has really helped him in the past. I have Michigan as barely going for McCain because Obama and the Democrats ignored that state in the primaries and I think some of the voters in that state may remember that when they're voting in NOvember. The state is one of the worst states economically right now and Democrats are running everything in that state. Swing voters may start looking Republican over there for solutions. Ohio could very easily go for Obama. It is the opposite of Michigan, in that it is in bad financial times, but Republicans ran everything until 2007. Pennsylvania could swing over for McCain too because it has a lot of the same kinf of voters that Ohio and Michigan has, but I still have it as an Obama state. Colorado could very easily go for McCain but I have it going blue because the Democrats are going to put a lot of concentration in that state with the Senate race. I currently have New Mexico as a McCain state, but it could just as likely go for Obama too. Virginia is really trending Democrat but assuming that this is a normal election where the winner wins by less than 5 points, I think Obama needs to pick a VP from that state in order to win it. From what I have read, it seemslike Democrats aren't putting that much effort into FLorida. It seems like they are resigned to it being a likely Republican state even though AL Gore barely lost it in 2000. It doesn't help that the whole party dissed the state in the primaries. If the Democrats actually lose this election, it will be because Obama campaigned more in Germany than he did in Florida and Michigan during the primary race.

Did this back around Marchish this year. True/False/Justify. Say whether you believe the statement is true or false and justify it.

Do you ever feel guilty because you put a recyclable item in a garbage can instead of a blue bin? I do. It sounds weird considering that I am a Republican and all for drilling for oil if it will lower gas prices. I don't think it is so much an environmental issue for me, as it is, I hate waste, and if you throw something away that could be recycled, you are wasting it. I am surprised that my sister, the liberal Democrat, does not recycle at all. I am guessing that she is not a Democrat for their stance on environmental issues. She probably doesn't even know or care about them. I think she more cares about issues like abortion and gay rights. I hate to say it, but I think most people just vote in those issues instead of more important issues like role of government, foreign policy, and economic philosophy. Or people vote for Democrats because they "help the poor" by making them dependent on government. Then when a disaster like Katrina happens, they can't think for themselves to get the hell out of an emergency situation, because someone has been doing their thinking for their whole life. Just wait until she is making a lot of money and the Democrats want to take half of it away from her to give it to someone else who is doing nothing, while she works 12+ hour days.

Maybe its because I think I'm relatively close to the coast, but the weather here is just *perfect*. It can't get any better. If Texas was like this, considering the other factors, I'd probably be there in a hurry. I thought that Los Angeles and Southern California was supposed to have hotter weather and was supposed to get into triple digits. Am I just here too early for that? Is that supposed to happen in August? It feels like 60's and 70's most of the time and the hottest part of the day, it may get into the 80's. Is this normal weather here? Some people from Florida may want to put a sweater on at night or in the morning here because under 70 in Florida is "cold".




People here are nice, so far too. When I was in the UCLA area, I was trying to find something and I asked a woman where I could find a map, and she gave me hers. I ordered a small pizza to go and the guy didn't want to give me an old one, so he asked me if I was ok with waiting for 6 minutes and he gave me something for free. I am from FLorida and I used to get insulted when I heard of books or surveys that said that the Miami area was the rudest area in the country. I always thought, "its because all the New Yorkers moved here..." and that is partially true. I don't know if it is because I lived in South FLorida too long, but I'm finding those surveys and books to ring true, that the Miami area is the rudest area in the country. Over there, "nice" is when someone is normal and doesn't rip you off and isn't rude. In another place, that is just normal. Maybe its because everyone in the Miami area except for most of my friends and me, came from somewhere else.

It would be weird to live in the same city as my sister. She would probably hate it thinking that me being here would disrupt everything for her. If this place was more libertarian, that would be great. If I was rich, I'd probably want a vacation home here.

Why are there still some places where you can't pay your bill on the computer? You have to pay by mailing a check. What century are we living in?

I think its a ploy so then people forget to mail it or people think they mail it, then they forget to mail it, then they can charge you late fees or ruin your credit. Or you send it on time, but then someone "loses it" and they don't receive it until it is "too late" and you get charged a late fee and they ruin your credit. That kind of happened with my Ford Credit situation that the car dealership messed up on. It was all the car dealership's fault and they admitted it was all their fault but Ford Credit was trying to ruin my credit for it.

Life is a clock with a countdown.
We don't know how long that countdown is for.
You must do everything you want to do before the countdown is over
because you don't get time added back once the clock expires.

Life is a test.
If you pass, you'll see golden streets.
If you fail, you'll be in a hot, smelly place, with no a/c.

Life is a game without do-overs.
You can compensate for the mistakes later on by building yourself back up again.
Its better to mess up in the beginning of the game rather than the end.
Life is a game where you are much more likely to surge into the playoffs rather than backing into them.

Life is a game with more failures than successes.
Those that succeed either learn from the failures,
or find a way to succeed that outweighs the previous losses.

Another person's trash is another person's treasure.
Sometimes you have to go through a lot of trash to find treasure.
You will likely be discarded as trash.
Find a situation that you treasure where you are treasured.
Once you find that treasure, stick with it.


(Maybe I'll add more to this later; or maybe these should all be separate and expanded on their own. I don't know.)

I wouldn't need to win the lottery to pay for my gas...

Maybe this should be a weekly segment on my LJ.

Amanda Peet called parents who do not want to vaccinate their kids over fears of autism, "parasites". Calling someone a "parasite" is a pretty strong word. I think that parents who may not want to vaccinate their kids because of the fear of them being autistic care just as much about their kids as those who vaccinate them. THey'll just risk them getting polio so there is no chance that they may be autistic. I don't know which side I would take on that debate. If I had to make a decision I would probably lean toward vaccinating a kid, but it would have to be after careful research. Later on she apologized and said that it is settled scientific fact that there is no correlation between vaccines and autism just as global warming is indisputable. Dr. Amanda Peet should probably stick to acting and not taking public positions on scientifically debatable issues.

Michael Savage said this.



These are the exact words: " Now, you want me to tell you my opinion on autism, since I'm not talking about autism? A fraud, a racket. For a long while, we were hearing that every minority child had asthma. Why did they sudden -- why was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], "When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], 'I don't know, the dust got me.' " See, everyone had asthma from the minority community. That was number one.

Now, the illness du jour is autism. You know what autism is? I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is.

What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, "Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot."

Autism -- everybody has an illness. If I behaved like a fool, my father called me a fool. And he said to me, "Don't behave like a fool." The worst thing he said -- "Don't behave like a fool. Don't be anybody's dummy. Don't sound like an idiot. Don't act like a girl. Don't cry." That's what I was raised with. That's what you should raise your children with. Stop with the sensitivity training. You're turning your son into a girl, and you're turning your nation into a nation of losers and beaten men. That's why we have the politicians we have. "

As for minorities having asthma. Its probably because many minorities live in the inner city where there is more pollution, which makes them more likely to have breathing problems.

As for autism, I really don't know enough to take a position on the issue, but I can't imagine that people are faking that sort of behavior. Who would want to be autistic? Of all the people to pick on, why autistic kids?

I can agree with Savage that we are turning into a nation of losers and that our politicians are lame but that is because of big government and a subpar education system . Our standards have greatly decreased but it doesn't have anything to do with autism. Unless some scientific evidence can prove that what he says is correct, I wouldn't mess with autistic kids.

Would you believe that it is already NOON on the east coast and people are halfway through their day over there, while on the left coast and in California, things are just beginning? That's one thing I like about California and the left coast- Pacific Time.

Last week, two people, one Democrat and one Republican embarassed their parties by making stupid comments.

Phil Gramm who is an economic advisor to John McCain said that Americans are "whining" about economic problems and that these economic problems are all in their minds. What a schmuck! Of course, what do you expect from someone who flunked 3 grades. He's probably rich and has a cushy job after being in teh Senate for who knows how long. When is the last time that he actually had a job in the private sector or at least had a job where everything wasn't so cushy; where you don't get paid $164,000 a year to be an overglamourized voter. Paying $4/gallon may not matter to him, but it matters to people in middle America who have to pay that to go to work everyday. And what about how much food costs. All these things like the price of a gallon of milk or the price of cereal have greatly increased in the last few years. When a republican publicly makes a statement like that, it adds to the negative stereotypes that Republicans are old, rich white men who are out of touch. WHy couldn't he have just said that in private in a smoke-filled room? Of course, with what Phil Gramm said, what they're smoking in the smoke-filled room, may not necessarily be legal.

I liked McCain's response when the media asked him about Phil Gramm's comments. "Phil Gramm's comments, in no way, will effect my consideration for his Ambassadorship to Belarus..."

Jesse Jackass is also in the news for a stupid comment. He said, when he thought he wasn't being recorded, that Barack Obama talks down to BLack people and that he wishes that he could cut his nuts off. He also called Barack Obama, "the 'n-word'". If Jesse Jackass was White, he would be boycotting himself right now and demanding that he get fired for those comments.

What a classic game and what a great Homerun Derby. I know that that Josh Hamilton from the Texas Rangers who used to be a drug addict, hit the most homeruns and lost, but is this Homerun Derby, the Homerun Derby that has featured the most combined Homeruns? Usually, hitting 6 homeruns in the first round is enough to move to the second round, but Dan Uggla wasn't able to move into the 2nd round because four other players had more than 6 homeruns. I was hoping if Uggla didn't win that maybe Ryan Braun would win.

That All Star Game was a classic. It went 15 innings. If you forget about Dan Uggla's three errors, it may have been one of the best-played All Star games ever. I thought after the American League tied it up in the 8th or 9th, that they would either win it or the that the game would end in a tie. The American League had home field advantage and the A.L. always manages to win the All Star game. At least in the last 12 years. THe A.L. has had the better players because the Yankees and the Red Sox are always in a pissing match to see who can overpay the most players, so then everyone else in the league has to find a way to match them.

In the National League, its more wide open and its anyone's game. The National League has done better in WOrld Series Championships than they have in All Star games, in the last 12 years, by going 4-8 in them. You can thank the Florida Marlins, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the St. Louis Cardinals for those wins. I guess in the N.L. the Phillies, Cubs, Brewers, and Mets may be the teams to beat, and maybe the Marlins if they can trade for some starting pitching because they already have the hitting. At last check, I think all 5 of the N.L Worst teams are all under .500. This year, the team that wins the N.L. Worst Division may be a losing team. I think, if a team can't even win a division with at least a .500 record that they should not be allowed in the playoffs and that their playoff spot should be given to a more deserving team that had a winning record. So if the Diamondbacks are 80-82, but the Cubs win 95 games, the Phillies win 90 games, the Brewers win 89, and the Marlins win 88, those teams should make the playoffs instead.

Does anyone have any thoughts/knowledge on that church?...

A friend of mine is going to one of those churches now...

Evidently the Team Formerly known as "The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" are now the "Anals".

Who would have thought?...

Will it last?

In other news, I think I'm bad luck for the Boston Red Sox. I think they are 0-3 in games that I have attended. Yankees fans should pay me to go to Red Sox games.