I was doing some morning reading and came across a post in the Atlantic called, "The Fluffiest Praise of Ted Cruz You're Likely to Encounter: Jim DeMint's paean in Politico is unintentionally revealing."
As someone who has lived in the United States for most of my life, I have to admit that I spend very little time thinking about Canada. At one point I lived near the northern border of Minnesota, and also in Alaska, but as for spending physical or mental time there? Not really.
Lately the Keystone Pipeline project has been all over the U.S. news. The Keystone Pipeline would send synthetic crude oil from Canada down through several refinery hubs in the U.S. and end in Texas near Houston.
Out for a neighborhood stroll, a yarn covered stop sign made me halt in my tracks and launched me into the secretive and rebellious world of “yarn bombing.” Most yarn projects in my life have sadly been ill-fitting Christmas sweaters from Grandma or potholder craft projects. This was another thing altogether - a startling wonder.
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If Saunders is coming in as a 1-year bridge guy, then the entire conversation changes. Pretty rare, as far as I recall, to get a guy like this to sign with you for a single season.
By "a guy like this" I mean a starting pitcher who:
I don't like Saunders' .500 SLG against righties, especially with the fences coming in out there in LF. Still, he was really hot last fall ... a 58:19 control in the second half, a 2+ ERA in September, and great in the playoffs. Obviously Buck Showalter saw how hot (not lucky) he was and rode it, slamming him in there against Texas to everybody's amazement -- and having it pay off huge.
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From BJOL this week:
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.rtalllia's question and your answer (would you get out of A-Rod's contract now if you could, yes) reminds me of something I've thought for some time now, and that's whether some criticisms of long-term contracts might be misplaced. It seems to me that you can think of a long-term contract as equal to a shorter contract for more money. Say you want Albert Pujols but won't pay $20 million a year for 3 years ($60 million), and he won't take $10 million for three years ($30 million), so you give him $12 million a year for 5 years and figure you're really getting the 3 years you want for $36 million, and the other 2 years is the price you have to pay. The $8 million a year ($24 million) you save in the first three years of the contract lets you improve your team in other ways, and because the discount rate is positive, you come out ahead. And if Albert is really no good 4 years out, you release him with his money and move on. Is this a completely wrong way to think about it?Asked by: flyingfishAnswered: 2/6/2013No, it's a valid way to think about it; I'm not sure that I understand how Pujols fits in here, but otherwise it's valid. When salaries started to move upward two or three years ago, it was clear that what was happening was that teams were adding years to the contract as a way to avoid admitting that they were, in reality, simply paying more per season. If you sign a 32-year-player to a 4-year contract, you can't SERIOUSLY expect to get four years out him. The fourth year is a kind of a dodge to avoid the contract being accurately valued.
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Felix has been worth this many WAR the last four years, 2009-12:
After the recent horrific shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, guns and gun control have been on the tip of the national tongue. Obama called for VP Joe Biden to deliver suggestions for national gun control laws, Texas and Wyoming introduced state legislation to ignore whatever Washington comes up with, and the topic has been the subject of rapid fire debate on social media and talk shows. When President Obama tasked VP Joe Biden to come up with suggestions for new national laws, asking him to have them ready in a month sounded like fast turnaround.
Texas Republican representative Steve Toth is gunning for a showdown with federal gun laws in anticipation of new, tighter restrictions on gun ownership. Picture your favorite Clint Eastwood movie, but inside of a Texas courtroom.
"At some point there needs to be a showdown between the states and the federal government over the Supremacy Clause. It is our responsibility to push back when those laws are infringed by King Obama," said Toth.
It used to be that if you wanted to experience the culture of another country, you’d have to jump on a boat, plane or some other sort of reliable transportation and make your way to that country to see it with your own eyes. Eventually, this evolved so that movies and television conveyed information to people in the comfort of their own homes.
