Author: ssw15

The month begins on an odd note. Saw the Mets v. Yankees game at Shea Friday night, game 1 of another 3. Mets win, 11 to 2. Would have had a lot more fun of it tonight had the rabid Yankee fans (apparently a known rowdy contingent from Yankee Stadium) made way too much raucous and tawdry vulgar chanting, inspiring some retaliating Mets fans to get equally stupid in their (not very creative or clever) chanting. I like a good baseball game, but despise stupidity. Seriously, Rabid Yankee Fan, is using the Dick Cheney expletive to describe the Mets any good, particularly when there are children sitting right behind you? (and if you really want to know what a “Dick Cheney expletive” is, feel free to ask; I can’t even take credit for it, Joe Klein of Time magazine came up with the term in his column this week). I would very much like not to sit behind rabid Yankee fans again if I can avoid it in the future.

Oh, and Mets win. Yeah. No guarantees on what can happen the next two games, but such is life. One step at a time, Mets fans, even if it means some steps backward (which happens way too much with the Mets). Let’s go Mets!

The news from NASA on Saturn sound exciting. So cool this year – Mars and Saturn.

Oh, and I finished reading another book on physics – “The Physics of Star Trek,” a nice, more-or-less-light by physicist Lawrence Krauss. I liked how he explained the time travel paradox – “Can I kill my grandmother before I am born?”; think of it this way – if you did kill Grandma before you were born, then you wouldn’t be born; and yet, you were the one who killed her; so, you had to have been born to even do that; and if you weren’t born to kill her, then she doesn’t die; and then you’re… born. So, for some reason and at some point in time, you exist but you simultaneously…don’t? Well, I can still get confused by the idea of the time paradox.

Anyway, I bought the paperback version of this book way back when, from a lovely secondhand book store in downtown Manhattan’s Nassau St. I recommend the book as a nice subway read. Slight quibble – Krauss’ book is slightly out-of-date, as string theory (as Brian Greene noted in his book) had made some progress (well, short of physical evidence anyway) since the publication of “The Physics of Star Trek.” Krauss also kept referring to Riker of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” as “Lt. Riker” before finally referring him by his correct rank (commander) – although, Krauss may have actually referred to Riker’s clone, who was stuck with the lieutenant rank, so my quibble there may be really silly nitpicking on my part.

Marlon Brando passed away, age 80. He immortalized Stanley Kowalski’s “Stella…” and is always going to be “The Godfather.” Which reminds me. Maybe I ought to watch the Godfather trilogy already? Hmm. Well, another thing to add on the to-do list, along with “really ought to read Harry Potter already.”

Have a nice Independence Weekend…

Hmm. Got on the D-train tonight, and there were all these people with Yankee jerseys on. I kept thinking, huh? And then it hits me – the D takes people to and fro Yankee Stadium. D’uh – I got aboard a train just after the game ended. At one point, some guys teased (rather harmlessly, thankfully) a pair of Boston Red Sox fans off the train (they were at their stop, apparently). Oh, well. So it goes in this city.

Watched PBS the other night (without cable, it appears to be the only stuff I can watch these days without grumbling about how crummy tv is lately). “History Detectives” season 2 – wherein PBS does a twist on the Antiques Roadshow with History Roadshow; the scholars are presented items and they dig through various resources to see what’s the story behind the item. Cool stuff. I like how they get into what they’re doing and get really interesting stories. The other night, sociologist Tukufu Zuberi, is presented with watercolors of a Japanese-American internment/concentration camp from World War II, painted on the back of reused paper that had been postered notices that sent communities to the camps. He followed up on various resources (even sifting through the microfilm) to track down the artist himself, who didn’t get his apology/reparation from the federal government until 1990. Amazing story. Check out the website for the episode’s transcript on the camp’s story segment and other interesting slide shows and links.

I enjoy the moments where I appreciate that I went to law school; for instance, I can watch the Lehrer newshour talk about the Supreme Court decisions on the enemy combatant cases and actually understand what the talking heads are saying. Ooh.

Anyway, good read on the Supreme Court cases in the continuing dialogue between Lithwick and Dellinger on Slate.com. Their discussion on the enemy combatant cases are links 6, 7, and 8; loved how Lithwick tells Dellinger:

I have loads of questions for you, like what to make of the fact that the court decided Hamdi [the American-born enemy combatant who was caught in Afghanistan when the U.S. armed forces were getting rid of the Taliban] but punted on Padilla [the one who allegedly planned a dirty bomb]? (And does the decision in Hamdi mean that Padilla will necessarily have his day in court, so long as he files his next habeas petition in the right one?) I felt strongly at oral argument that the court was much less sympathetic to Padilla than Hamdi—that at least some of the justices appeared more worried about tying the president’s hands when an alleged “dirty bomber” (or as Breyer said, a “ticking time bomb”) was the bad guy, as opposed to some punk kid who may have been fighting for the Taliban.

Uh hmm. The justices may very well be only human in perceiving the differences between an alleged “punk kid” and an alleged “dirty bomber.” Maybe. 😉

An interesting story on the Statue of Liberty on NY1.com, for this week’s “One on One,” in honor of the upcoming 4th of July holiday.

The Yankees went ahead and used their bats on the Mets yesterday, beating them in both games of the doubleheader. Beaten them soundly. Met fans should at least take comfort that pitcher Al Leiter made it through seven innings and won on Saturday. There’s some hope in Metsville (but, seriously, wasn’t it expected that the interleague series was going to be 2 games to 1 one in the Yanks’ favor?).

Anyway, let’s thank the Supreme Court for making today an interesting day; rule of law prevails. Lady Liberty can continue to hold up her head and her torch real high.