Slightly Off Base

Baseball, a precision game, has a lot of imprecision in its language.  When a batter comes up and the team is down by a run in the bottom of the ninth they say he’s “the tying run.”  No, he’s the “potential” tying run.  He has to get on base or hit such that he scores.  There are a number of other rather silly baseball phrases and one of the most common is after 4.5 innings the announcer says we’re half way through.  No you’re not half way through, because one team has batted 5 times and the other team only 4. So you’re not half way through.  What you’ve done is play 4.5 innings.  Another involves scoring and the term “sacrifice” fly.  That’s where a person hits a fly ball deep enough so a runner from third can tag and score.  Sometimes a batter might be deliberately doing that, sacrificing himself; other times if it’s a big difference in score and he just happens to hit a fly ball where a runner happens to be on third with less than two outs.  It’s a scoring aberration that has become a custom.  But, for a number of years, believe it or not, a fly ball which scored a runner from third was an RBI, but it counted against your batting average,  The idea was that you were trying to get a hit, but failed.  This rule actually existed in 1941 when Ted Williams had 406 and he would have hit somewhere in the neighborhood of 415.  Again, baseball, a precision game in terms of stats and analysis has some remarkably imprecise language.

Friday Fauxlosophy

In reference to Mitt Romney tax returns: Every dollar he doesn’t pay, is one the American people have to.

Mitt Romney, Bain’s “Sole” Man

The Bain Capital SCC Filing says as follows: “Mr. W. Mitt Romney is the sole shareholder, sole director, chief executive officer and President of Bain Capital and thus is the controlling person of Bain Capital.” Yet he says he had nothing to do with it in those years when he signed their filings. Maybe he was just helping by inspiration. Maybe he wasn’t the sole man, maybe he was their soul man. Or maybe he’s being just plain disingenuous.

Mitt, Your Calendar Doesn’t Fit

Mitt Romney had a fundraiser planned for Jerusalem, obviously to attract Jewish folks. It’s to be a $50,000 per plate affair so we assume the food will be at least pretty decent, possibly even kosher. But, what Mitt’s people didn’t do, as have the Evangelicals in the past (so Mormon’s and Evangelicals may be more alike that we think), is to actually look at a calendar. That day, which is actually the 9th of Av is a solemn fast day in the Jewish calendar. It is done to commemorate the destruction of both temples. Apparently, this was no oversight. The Romney people knew it was a day of fasting, and therefor only wanted it to be "small" event. Huh? As going back years when the Evangelicals supporting Robert Dole had a planned Yom Kippur lunch for American Rabbis, which didn’t have high attendance, once again, these folks that love Jews so much and respect Jews so much don’t seem to be terribly aware of the Jewish calendar when they plan so much. So Mitt, your calendar did not fit.

BRING BACK THE TRUTH IN POLITICS, BY GEORGE!

It is undisputed that we live in a polarized political age. This unfortunate dynamic just might be improved if we had increased transparency, because what one knows they are less likely to fear. However, no candidate in anyone’s memory has been less transparent, particularly regarding his very complicated personal finances, than has Gov. Mitt Romney. And while the facts must be known to be judged, it’s hard to envision multimillion dollar bank accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands helping to create US jobs. Romney’s approach stands in stark contrast to that of his father, Gov. George Romney, a wealthy and successful man in his own right, who released 12 years of tax returns when he ran for president. The American voting public should demand loudly and repeatedly; that Mitt Romney bring back the truth in politics, by George. He would then be honoring the memory of his father and respecting the intelligence of the American voter.